Heavyweight contender Zhilei Zhang will be a very interested observer in some of the upcoming fights in his weight class.

On February 17 in Saudi Arabia, unbeaten champions Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk will collide for the undisputed crown, with the IBF, IBO, WBA, WBO, WBC world titles at stake.

Zhang is WBO's mandatory challenger to the Fury-Usyk winner.

The Chinese giant is unsure of who will win, but he cautions that Fury needs to properly prepare himself after struggling, back in October, in a crossover boxing match with MMA veteran Francis Ngannou. Fury, who went down in the third round, was able to come away with a split decision win.

"I don’t know [who will win Fury-Usyk], anything can happen and my experience in the business tells me that until you hear the opening bell, anything is possible. If someone feels like they are not themselves then they could call the fight off. I’m unsure if it happens," Zhang said.

"The Francis Ngannou fight should be a wake up call for Tyson Fury. You have to train hard and focus on the gym, but you never know, everyone is different. But I can tell you if he prepares the same way he did against Francis Ngannou then he is going to be in big trouble and big danger."

At the moment, Zhang is more geared to seeing an Usyk victory based on their most recent performances.

"Right now, I am leaning towards Usyk to winning this fight as I believe skills pay the bills and dedication is the key to the sport of boxing," Zhang said.

Zhang is coming off a big banner year after scoring back-to-back stoppage victories of Olympic silver medal winner Joe Joyce of the UK.