More on Zou Shiming

My fascination with Zou Shiming, China's great hope for boxing gold, continues. I can't believe I just found this New Yorker profile of him written by Evan Osnos, who earlier this summer penned the best China article I've read all year, "Angry Youth."

Excerpt from "The Boxing Rebellion":

Teacher Zhang stood close to Zou’s face, spoke softly, and tipped a trickle of bottled water into his mouth. When the bell signalled the start of Round 2, Zou sprang forward and buried a left-right combination to even the score. He set his stance farther apart than before and bounced lightly on the balls of his feet. He scissored his legs, an homage to his idol, Muhammad Ali. His first round, it seemed, had been a warmup. He glided around Paraschiv, pausing only to flick a combination into the Romanian’s padded brow. Every time Paraschiv slung his fist, Zou eased out of the way and counterpunched. Paraschiv, pivoting and swinging in vain, did not score another point in the round. Or, for that matter, in either of the two rounds that followed.

Zou rarely knocks his opponents out. He batters them and darts out of reach, like an angry sparrow. Sometimes he holds his fists so low that they drop below his waist, a caricature of Ali. Zou is a light flyweight, the lightest weight class in the Olympics. But, even among boxers his size, Zou is known for exceptional speed. After he beat the Irish fighter Paddy Barnes, I asked Barnes what had happened. Zou’s left hand, he replied. “It’s that fast. I could hardly see it coming.” When the American Rau’shee Warren was on his way to losing to Zou in the 2004 Olympics, in Athens, Warren told his corner that he couldn’t keep up: “I’m telling the coach, ‘Dang, he can move, and I can’t catch him!’ ”

Recommended read, to say the least.

One more excerpt:

Zou is unfailingly soft-spoken and polite, which, in a sport of swaggerers, can be mistaken for lack of confidence. It shouldn’t be. After routing a European amateur champion recently, Zou conceded, “He is good. Outstanding. But I am better.” I asked him how he pictures himself when he fights. “I think I’ve combined martial arts and boxing,” he said. “Martial arts have a soft and flexible side, and boxing is more direct. Putting them together is a specialty of Chinese boxing.” He prides himself on distinguishing China in a way that it has never enjoyed. “Opponents looked down upon Chinese players before,” he has said. “They were happy to take on a Chinese boxer, because we were too weak.

“Now they come and shake hands with you. The stronger you become, the more respect you get.”

I can't help but think of the Frenchman who, after losing to Zou in the pre-quarters, refused to shake his hands.

The most exciting news I've gotten all week...

Comes courtesy of China's women's volleyball team, which defeated Russia last night in the quarterfinals -- the Russia squad that nearly beat China in the final match in Athens, the fifth set of which happens to be one of the most exciting things I've seen in sports -- and will now be playing in Thursday evening's semifinal to which I have tickets for!

!!!

Before these Olympics, the two gold medals the Chinese most wanted was for Liu Xiang and women's volleyball, and I'll actually be there, inside the venue, as the volleyball team tries to make the finals. This is incredible.

For my money, I don't think Brazil -- granted, very good -- has any idea what's about to hit them. I imagine the Capital Gymnasium will be absolutely rocking, as it has been for every Chinese match (too much fuel...), and that China will win a tough-fought match three games to zero.

I'm looking forward to this.

~

I posted on both this blog and ESPN's about boxer Zou Shiming's incredible victory over a Frenchman in his pre-quarterfinal bout on Saturday, and now an update: he's advanced to the semis. Yesterday the 48-kg sparrer defeated Birzhan Zhakypov of Kazakhstan 9-4 -- scoring seven of his nine points in the middle two rounds -- and will now face Paddy Barnes (take a guess what country he's from) in Friday's semis. I'll be watching (hopefully).

POSTSCRIPT: I'd like to refer folks to this from Awful Announcing, titled "MSNBC's 'Olympic Update' Continues to Disrespect the Beijing Games," which points out that Tiki Barber called his co-anchor -- albeit accidentally -- a "c*nt." It's actually pretty funny.

Boxing at Workers' Gymnasium

I attended Olympic boxing Saturday night with Jiujiu and wrote a story for ESPN The Blog that was published today. I've reproduced excerpts of an unedited version below.




Let's just say the bouts didn't get good until the Chinese took on the French, in the fourth bout of our evening. Then hell broke loose in the arena.

"The Sweet Science." It could mean many things yet nothing at all, and so it is that boxing is likewise hard to pinpoint. Is it a science for its technicality or art for the humanistic exhilaration of mano a mano battle? Is it sport or brutality? Is it competition or assault? Throw the phrase "boxing is called the sweet science because" into Google and you won't come any closer to an answer ("Boxing is called the sweet science because thats what it really is when you watch the best fight" [sic]). The best you can hope for is to take a seat and soak it in.

That's why we were at Workers' Gymnasium Saturday night, taking in eight pre-quarters bouts in the light fly (48 kg) division. Amateur boxing may be under fire for its scoring system, which awards points for punches deemed successful ("They way it is now, you might as well do fencing if they are going to judge like that," Britain's Billy Joe Saunders said after he lost his welterweight fight last Thursday), but that doesn't detract from the excitement of being in the venue. One bout in particular comes to mind.

...

Yanez was gracious in defeat, congratulating his opponent and going over to shake hands with the Mongolian trainers. He exited with dignity, even as an unpopular decision -- yet another in a string of many -- left fans shaking their heads. Science? Hardly. If but only for the saving grace of sweetness.