Chinese boxing star Zou Shiming pulled off a convincing 10-round unanimous decision victory over Hungary's Jozsef Ajtai during their match at the Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday to retain his current WBO International Flyweight title.
The win, which improved his win-loss record to 8-1 with two knockouts, is said to be the 35-year-old Zou's kick off bout in the mainland US as the boxer and his representatives plan to book him for future flyweight world title fights.
Zou is currently under Bob Arum's Top Rank promotions, which allowed him to be guided under world-renowned trainer Freddie Roach.
He is one of amateur boxing's winningest fighters with three World Amateur Championships gold medals and two Asian Games titles as well. He turned pro when he was already turning 32 years old back in April 2013. As a late bloomer in the professional competitions, the match against the 19-year-old Hungarian was just the ninth of his career.
The South China Morning Post reported that "the two-time Olympic gold medalist and three-time world champion was in such control through the 10 rounds that he was smirking and sticking out his chin at his opponent in the later stages".
The report also noted that an estimate of 20 million viewers in China watched the telecast of his US debut as he is one of the most popular sports figures in the Far East nation.
Zou won all three judges' cards with a score of 100-89, which is a shutout against the inexperienced Ajtai, who seemed to have gotten tired late in the match because of running away from his opponent and his pure defensive game plan.
"My competitor's objective was to stand to the last minute of the fight," said Zou. "He was afraid of the competition."
Meanwhile, Boxing Scene noted that Ajtai displayed a "wild, awkward style", which is contrasting of Zou's "well-schooled technical attack". Zou put the pressure on Ajtai with his jabs early in the match but he was unable to take advantage every time the latter was trapped in the corner.
Zou kept moving forward even though it looked like he was the only one ready to fight. The Chinese gave his best to entertain the fans, but Ajtai was on his bicycle almost the entire fight, pot-shooting here and there to no avail.