The first title fight of the coming weekend takes place in Dubai as the little known, but yet historic, Xiong Zhao Zhong (20-4-1, 11) defends his WBC Minimumweight title against the highly ranked Filipino Denver Cuello (33-4-6, 21) in what should be a highly enjoyable contests, even if it is in an unfavoured division.
The champion, the first male "world champion" from his native China is widely regarded as a paper champion, a man given a title to help raise the profile of boxing in the untapped Chinese market (something Bob Arum is now trying to tap in to with Zou Shiming). The WBC allowed Zhong, who had never previously fought at the 105lb division, to fight for the vacant belt late last year against the somewhat hopeless Javier Martinez Resendiz.
Zhong defeated Resendiz last year via decision for the belt in a relatively close contest after the WBC had paid a step aside fee to their mandatory contender, Filipino Denver Cuello (who of course, now fights for the belt some 7 months later).
Stylistically Zhong is pretty limited, he's tough and does have plenty of power on his shots, in fact he dropped the then WBC Flyweight champion Daisuke Naito back in 2009 but from a technical stand point he's "acceptable but limited". There is no great work from him and his victories to date don't belie some under-lying "extra gear" that he could move in to if push came to shove.
What Zhong does have going in his favour is the fact he is a naturally bigger man having competed at both Flyweight and Light Flyweight for much of his career. This should help him take the shots of Cuello and even allow him to bully the challenger a bit but at 30 years old he is certainly getting on a bit for a fighter in the lower divisions and he's also stepping in with his best opponent since Naito some 4 years ago.
In the Filipino challenger we have a fighter who has waited his turn for a world title fight, then had to wait a bit longer. More and more obstacles have been thrown in his way over the years and yet they've not prevented him from becoming one of the most exciting fighters in the lower division.
Fighting from the southpaw stance the 26 year old Cuello has become known as "Mr Excitement" due to his vicious power which has helped him become on of the top ranked Minimumweights on the planet and helped him stop 10 of his last 12 opponents.
Having started his career 3-2-4 Cuello has turned things around remarkably well and has lost just 1 of his last 27 fights (and even that was a highly controversial DQ in Mexico against a Mexican fighter). He has done things "the hard way" and developed as a fighter thanks to it. He is now a solid offensive fighter with a hurtful array of shots to the head and body and a fighter who will be a real nightmare for anyone in the division.
Going in to this bout it's obvious the WBC would rather see Zhong retain the title so they could push things in China (and hopefully "help" IK Yang and Zou Shiming to world title bouts). With this in mind I actually see Cuello more determined than ever to stop his opponent. This might back fire with the toughness of Zhong but the body shots that Cuello throws are bound to take an effect sooner or later.
Prediction-Cuello TKO7
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