I’d like to say “THANK YOU, DAISUKE NAITO” for saving DREAM’s ass in the ratings department. The Japanese MMA fanbase has dropped off sharply since the end of PRIDE; meanwhile, Naito is 34 years old and just had a TV biopic made about his life.

Here’s hoping the bout lasts long enough that there isn’t a huge gap between the end of the boxing show and DREAM, because judging by his Boxrec, it looks like Zhong has faced solely tomato cans and debutantes until now.

As worthless as his record is (and i genuinely don’t think i’ve ever seen a world title challenger less qualified), he’s just about the most experienced pro boxer in the country. Until recent times, professional boxing was illegal, but as brick said, they didn’t even have an amateur programme until the last decade. Even with the importing of foreign coaches, and the first waves of ex-amateurs coming through, there aren’t the fighters with the years of training that most countries take as a given.

In the future, if boxing catches on (and hell, with 1.3 billion people, even if it becomes low-level), china could be a huge player in world boxing, especially if the government take any interest. It’s just a shame that their first world title match has to be right now, when they don’t have anyone more worthy of a shot than a dude who has never beaten a boxer with a winning record.

Right now? Garbage. But in 20 years time, they could have multiple champs in the lower weight classes