Zou Shiming, highly-regarded as China's most popular boxer, reclaimed the WBO International Flyweight title via an eighth round TKO victory over Brazil's Natan Santana Coutinho at the Oriental Sports Center in Shanghai, China on Saturday, Jan. 30.
It was just the seventh win of the 34-year-old Zou's professional career as the Zunyi, Guizhou, China native only debuted as a pro in April 2013 after an illustrious amateur stint that saw him win gold medals in the Olympic Games, World Amateur Championships, World University Championships, and Asian Games.
Zou (7-1, 2 KOs) also pulled off only the second knockout win of his career. He had to hurt the 21-year-old Coutinho (12-1, 10 KOs) with a barrage of punches in the eighth to register it. The referee stopped the fight at the 2:34 mark of the round when the Brazilian was unable to respond back to his shots.
Bleacher Report noted that the Chinese fighter gained control of the match "in the middle rounds despite some attacking flurries from a gamely Coutinho". Zou survived the Brazilian's early attacks and then started to weaken him "with a steady barrage of heavy shots".
Halfway into the match, it was becoming obvious that Zou is much more experienced and skillful than his novice counterpart.
"Zou's performance in this fight was outstanding," said Top Rank chief Bob Arum, who aside from Zou also handles eight-division world champ Pacquiao, as reported Yahoo Sports.
"I really want to test Zou again with another top contender in the spring. If he passes that, we will have him fight for a world championship by the end of the year," Arum said.
Zou first won the WBO International Flyweight belt in July 2014, beating Luis de la Rosa of Colombia via a 10-round unanimous decision at the Venetian Macao in Macau, SAR.
However, Zou had to give up his title in November 2014 when he faced Thailand's Kwanpichit Onesongchaigym in a world WBO Flyweight title eliminator match as an undercard during the Manny Pacquiao-Chris Algieri fight. He won the match to have the right to face Onesongchaigym's compatriot Amnat Ruenroeng in March for the World IBF Flyweight belt.
Zou suffered his first professional defeat against Ruenroeng, a 12-round unanimous decision loss, also at the Venetian Macao to fail to win his first world title.