Zou Shiming and Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez will headline Champions of Gold – championship boxing’s return to The Venetian Macao’s Cotai Arena. The Zou Shiming & Gilberto Ramirez boxing doubleheader will take place Saturday, July 19, and will be televised via same-day delay on HBO2, beginning at 5:00 p.m. ET/PT.
Zou, just 15 months removed from his professional debut, will be stepping into his deepest ring waters yet, fighting in his first 10-round bout, against hard-punching veteran and three-time world title challenger Luis “Chino” De La Rosa. For Zou, who has had only four professional bouts, De La Rosa could prove the ultimate litmus test on whether he can challenge for a world championship belt later this year. The telecast will open with Ramirez, world-rated in the Top-Five by all four major sanctioning organizations, defending his NABF and NABO super middleweight titles against “The One” Junior Tailpeau, who returns to the ring following a career-best victory.
Zou (4-0, 1 KO), from Guizhou, China, is one of China’s most revered athletes and has single handily revived professional boxing’s popularity in his native country. Trained by Hall of Famer Freddie Roach, Zou won his professional debut, on April 6, 2013, via a dominant four-round unanimous decision over gritty Eleazar Valenzuela. He followed that up with six-round unanimous decision victories last year over Jesus Ortega and Juan Toscano on July 27 and November 24, respectively, and celebrated his 2014 debut with his first professional knockout February 22, stopping Yokthong Kokietgym in the seventh round. All of his professional bouts have taken place at the Cotai Arena. An Olympic legend, Zou was the world’s greatest amateur light flyweight, capturing gold medals in the World Amateur Championships in 2005, 2007 and 2011, along with gold medals in the 2008 and 2012 Summer Olympic Games. He also owns an Olympic bronze medal from the 2004 games, making him his nation’s first Olympic medallist in boxing as well as its first boxing gold medallist in the World Amateur Championships and the Olympics. A victory for Zou, currently world-rated No. 6 by the World Boxing Association (WBA), could place him one giant step closer to a world title challenge this year.
De La Rosa (23-3-1, 13 KOs), of Barranquilla, Colombia, brings two-fisted punching power and an aggressive fighting style into the ring. A three-time interim world championship challenger and a former Colombian champion, four of De La Rosa’s last six victories have come by way of knockout, including his last fight, a second-round knockout of Deivis Marvaez. De La Rosa is currently world-rated No. 11 by the International Boxing Federation (IBF).
Ramirez (28-0, 22 KOs), of Mazatlan, Mexico, is world-rated No. 2 by the World Boxing Council (WBC), No. 3 by the World Boxing Organization (WBO) and the WBA and, No. 4 by the IBF. A sensational young contender, Ramirez, 23, has won both his 2014 bouts by knockout. In his last outing, on April 11, he captured the NABF and NABO super middleweight titles via a fifth-round knockout of two-time world title challenger Giovanni Lorenzo.
Talipeau (20-2-1, 7 KOs), a New Zealand native who fights out of Kogarah, New South Wales, Australia, was a former Australian middleweight champion who successfully defended the title five times during his two-year reign before moving up to the super middleweight division. Boasting a victory over two-time world title challenger Shannan Taylor, Talipeau enters this fight having won two of his last three fights by way of knockout. His most recent victory was a 12-round unanimous decision over Walter Crucce for the WBA Latin American super middleweight title. He is currently world-rated No. 14 by the WBA.
