Boxing in China began as a street sport in the 1920s, mainly in the port cities of Shanghai and Guangzhou, where foreign sailors were pitted against local fighters in the ring.
Sports authorities were unnerved, and in 1959, as China organized its first National Games, it dropped boxing from the lineup.
Fan Hong, a scholar who specializes in China's athletic history, commented, "People believed that boxing was very brutal, very ruthless, and those were said to be the characteristics of capitalism.
This achievement was greeted with rapturous applause and Chinese reporters nicknamed him the Dark Horse at first because of his underdog status.
Later, they tried the Knight of Lightning or the Fox or, sometimes, the Pirate, all celebrating his knack for snatching points and peeling away from his opponents' reach.
It was another year before Zou won his first gold medal, at the 2005 World Amateur Boxing Championships, held in the western Chinese city of Mianyang.
[5] Similarly, Ik Yang fought veteran César Cuenca and lost via unanimous decision for the vacant IBF light welterweight title.
[8] Zou Shiming made history becoming the 2nd Chinese National to win a World Championship title with a unanimous-decision over Prasitsak Phaprom of Thailand, to win the WBO flyweight championship fight at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada, US on Nov 5, 2016.