Zou Shiming The Driving Force For China's Fight Scene

Manny Pacquiao would not have been fighting in Macau this weekend had it not been for Zou Shiming.

Pacquiao will be cheered by thousands of Filipinos as he defends his WBO welterweight title in the former Portuguese colony on Sunday but without Zou the fight would be happening elsewhere.

The champion faces a challenge from American Chris Algieri at the 15 000-seat Cotai Arena in the southern Chinese city less than two hours flight from Manila. That is where, a year ago, he beat Brandon Rios.

But it is Zou, a double Olympic Games gold medal winner, who has been the driving force behind the rise of professional boxing in China and who is rapidly assuming superstar status.

The flyweight fighter had a cameo appearance in the latest Transformers film blockbuster and stars, alongside basketball star LeBron James and tennis legend Serena Williams, in a new television advertisement that will be shown in Asia for the first time this weekend.

"Zou is the engine behind all this activity in China," Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said this week. "He's the poster boy."

Arum's association with Zou and his manager, Sheng Li, has resulted in the Venetian Macau becoming Asia's premier boxing venue in less than two years.

It resulted in the first professional tournament in mainland China that was held in Shanghai three months ago.

Li, chief executive of sport events giant SECA, also manages former baseball star Yao Ming and it was he who first contacted Arum two years ago about the possibility of promoting Zou.

Arum saw the possibilities in a potentially huge new market and promoted Zou's first professional fight at the Venetian Macau in April last year.

Zou will fight in a 12-round title eliminator, his sixth professional bout, on Sunday.

Li believes Zou can do for professional boxing, once banned in China, what Yao did for basketball. "Young kids … love the celebrity status of it. That helps to attract them to it," Li said on Thursday.

"Like we put Zou in Transformers 4. They loved they way he had that killer look. Basically his role was to give that look and knock the other guy down. It was perfect."

The film was a huge box office hit across the world's most populous nation, raising Zou's profile further.

Now Top Rank and SECA produce a weekly hour-long boxing magazine show on national television and plan a second fight programme next month in Shanghai before rolling out a new Fists of Power series next year.

"The goal is to have a world title fight in China next year," said Li, who acknowledged it had taken Zou's success to change official opinion about professional boxing.

"The problem in China has been that the Olympic machine only cares about the amateurs. In the past they have seen pro boxing as a competing interest," he added.

"What we're trying to do is to convince these guys at every level that pro boxing offers you a second career after amateur boxing. The two work together, not against each other."

Pacquiao drives pay-per-view subscriptions in the United States, but it is the lad who first won gold in Beijing who has been the real catalyst for the long-term plan to develop professional boxing in the huge market in China.