Co-manager of heavyweight Zhilei Zhang, Terry Lane, is confident of his heavyweight charge claiming victory this upcoming weekend and is already looking ahead to bigger things for his Chinese heavyweight star.
Zhang [25-1-1 20KOs] would box on British shores last April against Joe Joyce [15-1 14KOs], who at the time was the WBO heavyweight mandatory challenger for Oleksandr Usyk and claim victory to hand Joyce his first career defeat and wrestle the mandatory number 1 ranking away from the 2016 Olympics silver medalist.
Zhang and Joyce will meet again at Wembley Arena, London, with Joyce seeking to claim redemption and right the wrong of his April defeat to Zhang, who was stopped due to eye damage sustained in the contest. Joyce immediately activated his contractual obliged rematch clause, which sees Zhang return to UK shores.
Lane believes that if Zhang is victorious once again, the division will separate and see a definitive top three within the ratings of Fury, Usyk and Zhang. Lane continues to add that if Zhang is successful, then the Chinese heavyweight star will be targeting Tyson Fury in wanting to challenge for the WBC world crown.
"I think a win for Zhilei on Saturday really separates out the heavyweight division," Lane told Sky Sports. "If he is victorious, you really have Fury, Usyk and Zhang on top. Everyone else will be far, far beneath.
"If Zhilei wins, as we expect him to again, Fury is our first target. We will have to sit back and see what fights get made - and perhaps more importantly, which fights do not get made. This division is just a constant game of 'musical chairs'."
Negotiations between Zhang and Fury had occurred shortly after the original encounter between Joyce and Joyce, however Joyce would activate his rematch clause.
This ultimately disappointed Zhang when he spoke to the same publication but was aware of his contractual obligations at the time of the original contest.
"I was little bit disappointed because I was very, very close to making that Tyson Fury fight happen, right before Joe activated the rematch clause," said Zhang.
"But we had this in the contract. I had to sign the rematch clause in order to get to the first fight. So I will do whatever is right, which is the rematch."
