Chinese national team meets Team USA in Dino Duva sponsored card
After months of anticipation the Chinese national boxing team will take on a US team tonight in New York City in a historic event promoted by Dino Duva.
The show, called “Empires Collide,” will feature 13 amateur bouts, with 10 men’s and three women’s in just as many weight classes.
Conceived and put together by Duva, the event will pit the two nations together in hopes of offering a sneak peak at 2012 Olympic prospects. Duva is the president of Duva boxing and the son of legendary boxing trainer Lou Duva.
Duva's interest in Chinese fighters came in 2008 as a spectator at the Beijing Olympics. He was so impressed with the range of talent and potential business opportunities he has since made no fewer than 14 trips to China, accruing some 200,000 air miles.
In reward for his efforts he secured a promotional contract with the Chinese Boxing Federation to promote Chinese prospects.
Explaining, Duva said: "One — they're terrific athletes, they're excellent boxers, which showed in the last Olympics in Beijing (Chinese boxers won two gold medals), they have great potential. And two — honestly, the prospect of doing business with Chinese
athletes is very, very interesting. As everyone knows, capitalism is thriving over there— they have opened up their doors to the West to do business with them. A lot of corporate sponsors want to get involved with Chinese athletes.”
One of the most marketable amateurs on the card will be 6-foot-7 super heavyweight Zhang Zhilei. Zhilei is a southpaw who won a silver medal at the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Another prospect is junior flyweight Zou Shiming, a Beijing gold medallist.
“These boxers are talented, they're willing to do things in a very honorable, dedicated way, from a sports and business standpoint, and I think the boxing and sports worlds are going to be very surprised at how good they are, how
professional they are, and how marketable they are,” Dino said.
"I'd be lying if I didn't have a dream of that down the road," Duva admitted. "Right now we're focusing on training them to be as successful as possible at the next Olympics. Some of them have great potential as professionals."
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