Ekaterinburg - In a monumental upset and one of the most bizarre fights in recent memory, lightly regarded Chinese import Zhaoxin Zhang came from almost being knocked out cold to a knockout victory of his own in a matter of seconds. With a come-from-behind stoppage of previously undefeated Russian heavyweight Evgeny Romanov came a shot at the WBA bridgerweight title, owned by Romanov's compatriot and 2016 Olympic gold medalist Evgeny Tishchenko.
Stocky, muscular WBA #2 Romanov, who previously competed exclusively as a heavyweight, used his physical power to impose his will onto WBA #3 former cruiserweight Zhang. Romanov's physical power was complimented by his precision and heavy punching. Romanov started landing clean shots almost immediately. Zhang took punches but started to wobble during the second minute of round one. Romanov connected with more heavy leather, rocking the Chinese, and finally put him down with a hard left hook to the jaw seconds before the end of the opening round. Zhang was up at the count of nine and was very lucky that the round ended in just a second after.
Zhang was clearly dazed at the start of the second round; one minute being too little even for his partial recovery. Romanov immediately jumped at the Chinese boxer and started delivering punches. At some point, he pinned Zhang to the ropes and landed about ten unanswered shots, but the referee failed to intervene. The beating went on. Zhang's face was already bleeding. Romanov went to the body and wobbled Zhang again. He sensed the smell of victory and went in for the kill. The Chinese boxer threw and landed a left hook that twisted Romanov's head 90 degrees. He followed it up - on his instinct alone - with a big right hand that landed behind the ear of Romanov, sending him down to the canvas, face-first. Romanov was up at nine but too groggy to continue. Time of stoppage was 2:24 of the second round.
With an improbable kayo, Zhaoxin Zhang improves to 12-2-1, 7 KOs, while Romanov suffers his first career loss and drops down to 19-1, 12 KOs.