Zhilei Zhang cruises passed Devin Vargas
On the Haney v Gamboa undercard, heavyweight contender Zhilei “Big Bang” Zhang (22-0, 17 KO’s) won by way of his 17th knockout victory. His unfortunate victim was Devin Vargas (22-7, 9 KO’s), who succumbed in the 4th round. Out of his last eleven bouts, Big Bang has won ten by KO. In fact, before his last outing that ended in a unanimous decision, Zhang was enjoying a nine consecutive knockout streak.
The win and knockout should serve Zhang well in moving up the rankings and a bit closer to a title shot. At present, the Chinese KO-artist is ranked #15 by the IBF and # 11 by the WBO. Prior to his brutalization of Vargas, Zhang had been out of the ring for just about a year to the day. Now that he is back active, Big Bang will no doubt be looking to get another significant fight very soon.
EASY PICKINGS
To start the fight, there was not much to report. Vargas did little else outside of use his legs to evade the taller southpaw and eat shots. Zhang displayed a wide array of punches ranging from his long jab, crisp uppercuts and thumping hooks.
With the coming of the second period, Vargas seemed to hit a switch. Rather than almost exclusively being elusive, he began throwing many effective, short burst combinations. A good amount of his offense landed, but nothing appeared to bother or deter Zhang. For his part, the Big Bang consistently chipped away at the native Ohioan with hard thudding blows.
The third was a mirror of the second round. In the fourth however, Zhang caught Vargas with a nasty right hook, straight left combination that put him on the canvas. Despite having his wits, Vargas did not get up apparently due to a leg injury. Being unable to beat the count, referee Frank Gentile counted him out and ended the contest.
By: Bakari Simpson
