Zhong becomes China’s first boxing world champ, match with Cuello up next

This was how it was planned out from the very start. The WBC wanted to penetrate the Chinese market and they did it by putting their WBC minimumweight title up for grabs in China’s Kunming province. They even paid Filipino pug Denver Cuello a step-aside fee to enable a Chinese boxer to fight for the WBC title. Xiong Zhao Zhong (20-4-1, 11 KOs) did not disappoint as he scored a unanimous decision victory over Mexico’s Javier Martinez Resendiz (13-4-2, 6 KOs) to become China’s first world champion in the sport of professional boxing. The three judges at ringside scored the fight 116-114, 116-112, and 119-110 all for the Chinese. In his 25 professional fights, Zhong has fought seven opponents in their professional boxing debut. Including Resendiz, he has only fought five opponents with winning records and he lost three of those fights. But with his big win, Zhong is now the WBC minimumweight title. However, his reign may not last long as his first title defense will be against reigning WBC Silver minimumweight champion Denver Cuello (32-4-6, 21 KOs). The arrangement that the WBC and Cuello’s team agreed upon was that the winner of the match between Zhong and Resendiz would be mandated to defend the title against Cuello, who has been salivating for his shot at a world title for far too long. - AMD, GMA News