Trainer: Zhang Zhilei Wants Hrgovic, Chisora, Whyte Or Povetkin After Forrest Fight

MIAMI – Jerry Forrest is a step up in competition from Zhang Zhilei’s last opponent.

The unbeaten Chinese heavyweight contender and his trainer still had hoped to fight someone more formidable on the Canelo Alvarez-Avni Yildirim undercard Saturday night at Hard Rock Stadium in nearby Miami Gardens. They appreciate the activity promoter Eddie Hearn has afforded Zhilei, but their plan entering this 10-round fight is for the strong southpaw to defeat Forrest so impressively that he’ll get a more proven opponent in his following fight.

In Forrest (26-4, 20 KOs), the 6-feet-6, 256-pound Zhilei (22-0, 17 KOs) will encounter a veteran heavyweight who lost his last fight to Carlos Takam by unanimous decision July 9 at MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas.

“We know Jerry Forrest is a solid fighter,” Shaun George, Zhilei’s trainer, told BoxingScene.com. “I wanted and Zhilei wanted somebody bigger – a bigger name and a bigger contender before we got this fight. We’re happy with Eddie. We’re not complaining about that at all. But we wanted a contender.

“We wanted a Hrgovic. We wanted a Chisora. But we’re here, and I believe Zhilei will get a middle-round stoppage, hopefully, if everything goes well. I did study tapes of Jerry Forrest. He’s a confident guy. And I know the media is gonna say this is the most experienced guy Zhilei has fought, but Zhilei has had great sparring with Otto Wallin.”

The 37-year-old Zhilei, a silver medalist at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, knocked out Devin Vargas (22-7, 9 KOs) in the fourth round of his most recent appearance. That victory took place November 7 at Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida, almost a year after Zhilei’s previous fight.

The 32-year-old Forrest, of Newport News, Virginia, has been knocked out only once. Gerald Washington (20-4-1, 13 KOs) stopped him in the second round of their August 2013 fight in Indio, California.

“I think in this fight we’re gonna show a lot of different things,” George said. “If Zhilei does half of what he did in training and sparring, this should be a stoppage within six, seven rounds.”

If Zhilei can do that, he’ll capitalize on the exposure he’ll receive by competing on the undercard of arguably the sport’s biggest star.

“It’s a big card,” George said. “This is an opportunity for Zhilei to get more exposure. People don’t know who Zhilei is. They haven’t seen much of him. They’ve seen [Filip] Hrgovic, they’ve seen Dereck Chisora, they’ve seen the Dillian Whytes, they’ve seen the [Alexander] Povetkins. Those are the contenders we wanna face, but Zhilei has to get his name out there.”

George, a retired light heavyweight, hopes this is the night fans and media start seeing what he has witnessed in the gym for several years.

“I know what Zhilei can do,” George said. “I’ve seen him do it in the gym a hundred different times. I’ve seen him do it in international competition as an amateur. There’s so much more to Zhilei than people have seen. It’s not just punching power. It’s about his IQ. It’s about his timing. It’s about his hand speed. It’s about his footwork. It’s about his head movement. It’s about his defense. It’s about his body attack, working up and down. There’s so many different things he can do, and I’m excited for people to actually see it. He should be able to do some of that Saturday night, as long as Forrest can last some rounds.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.