According to Dan Rafael of espn.com, two-time Olympic Gold Medal winner Zou Shiming will headline his second card in Macau, China on July 27th that will also feature two world title bouts and be televised on HBO 2 and Uni Mas.
“We’re very pleased with the way the show came together,” said Top Rank Promoter Bob Arum, who has long wanted to open the potentially lucrative Chinese market to world-class boxing. “I think everyone enjoyed our first show there and we’re looking forward to doing more.”
Featherweight Evgeny Gradovich (16-0, 8 KOs) of Russia will make his first title defense against mandatory challenger Mauricio Munoz of Argentina (26-3, 12 KOs) in one of the title bouts. Also, Juan Francisco Estrada (24-2, 18 KOs), who won a decision against Brian Viloria to claim a pair of world flyweight title belts on the April 6 undercard, will return to Macau for his first defense, a mandatory against the Philippines’ Milan Melindo (29-0, 12 KOs), who also won on the April undercard by knocking out Tommy Seran in the fourth round.
“I think Estrada-Melindo will be well-anticipated [in Macau] because Estrada looked so good there against Viloria and Melindo knocked a guy cold on the undercard and now they are fighting each other,” Arum said.
Also on the card — in a fight that will air in the United States on same-day tape delay on UniMas’ “Solo Boxeo Tecate” series — undefeated heavyweight prospects Andy Ruiz (18-0, 12 KOs), born in Mexico and living in California, and Joe Hanks (21-0, 14 KOs), of Newark, N.J., will square off in a scheduled 10-round bout that could go a long way to producing a heavyweight prospect to watch.
“After the first show, that night, they asked us when could we come back,” Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti said of Venetian officials.
“I’m looking forward to every one of these fights. Estrada-Melindo is a guaranteed fight of the year candidate with the way these guys like to go at it. Gradovich is in an interesting division against a good opponent. When you can put together two undefeated heavyweights it means something and has an immediate impact on the division and then you have Zou, who they love in China.”
“[Top Rank matchmaker] Bruce [Trampler] says that Andy Ruiz is a future heavyweight champion in the post-Klitschko era,” Arum said. With three Macau cards scheduled, Arum said his company is not done.
“We’ll have three in Macau this year and we’re working on a show at the Venetian in Singapore for whenever they want it, maybe October,” Arum said.
