Zhang Mingyang Is Ready For The Deep Waters

For the fighter known as “The Mountain Tiger," it’s a chance to rebound from defeat to Johnny Walker in Shanghai, and potentially earn himself a spot in the light heavyweight rankings in the process.

“I would say the loss in my last fight is a very good experience,” he said.

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“Even now I still experience that. I can feel what the loss can bring to me. So, to me, you should see the loss in a positive way. You cannot see it in a negative way. So, I think it is a test in front of you. You can either be determined to be the one you want to be, and overcome the difficulties, or you just get crushed by the loss. You need to choose which way you want to be, and obviously I choose to be the first one. I need to move forward.”

Only one of Zhang’s career fights has gone the distance, and all of his wins have been by finish. But, despite that penchant for finishing the job early, he said that he’s always ready for the fight to go longer, if needed. And, thanks to his last fight being a five-round main event, he feels even more prepared for the deep waters of the later rounds, if his bout with Menifield goes that far.

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"I always prepare for a full [fight], either 15 minutes or 25 minutes. We never prepare for a first-round early finish,” he said.

“We have several different gameplans, so we prepare for anything, but if the chance comes up, whenever it is in the fight, I will catch it. So, maybe it'll be an early finish, maybe it'll be a three-round fight. 

“Also, an interesting thing I found is that once you have the experience for a five-round fight camp like my last fight, then when you prepare for a three-round fight, it's gonna feel much easier, because for my last camp it was really hard. Each day I felt like I'm in hell – the training was extremely hard – so for this camp I felt, ’OK, things aren’t that bad,’ so yeah, that’s something interesting I found from my last camp and this camp.”

Zhang wants to bounce back with a big win, not just for his own career aspirations, but also for the Chinese fans, who will pack the stands of the Galaxy Arena to cheer on all of the Chinese fighters on the card. Being a part of a seven-fighter Chinese cohort during fight week has been a real positive for Zhang, and he’s hopeful that he and his compatriots can all deliver on home soil on Saturday night.

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"What makes me feel special about this Macau event is the bond between the Chinese fighters,” he explained.

“Me and Sumudaerji are on the main card [and] we were on the same flight to Macau. When we were picking up our luggage, we were waiting together. I just realized, ‘Bro! We’ve known each other for such a long time, but we haven’t fought together [on the same card]. So this time we can fight together!

“Even with Song Yadong – we didn’t know each other for such a long time, but this time he’s the main event, and I’m the co-main event, with many other good Chinese fighters. I think all of us will try our best to give an amazing show to our people.”