Zou won the 2005 World Amateur Boxing Championships by beating Pál Bedák in the final, becoming the first ever Chinese boxer to win the tournament.

Zou won gold again at the 2012 Summer Olympics by beating Kaeo Pongprayoon 13–10, but several critics regarded his victory as controversial.

On 23 January 2013, he signed a contract with boxing promotion company Top Rank and was subsequently trained by Freddie Roach.

[4] After a win over Jesus Ortega,[5] Zou fought on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao vs. Brandon Rios on 23 November 2013, beating Juan Tozcano.

[6][7] He recorded his first knockout win of his professional career on 22 February 2014, beating Yokthong Kokietgym in the seventh round.

[9][10][11] After retaining the title against Prasitsak Phaprom on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao vs. Chris Algieri, Zou fought IBF flyweight champion Amnat Ruenroeng at the Cotai Arena in Macau on March 7, 2015.

Ruenroeng shattered Zou's dreams of becoming world champion and gifted him his first professional loss when he scored a unanimous decision win after 12 rounds and retained his title in the process.

Roenroeng won the bout comfortably with all three judges scoring it (116–111 x3), despite being controversially knocked down in round 2 as he lost his balance.

Zou consistently landed quick and effective combinations from the opening bell and used his footwork to avoid punches.

In a shocking upset, Kimura, who was behind on two scorecards at the start of round 11, knocked Zou out to win the WBO flyweight title.