Zou Shiming's Wife Alleges Boxer Owed Money, Forced To Fight
As BoxingScene.com reported last week, the career of two-time Olympic gold medal winner Zou Shiming is in jeopardy due to serious health problems related to his left eye.
Zou was sent to a hospital in Shanghai last week following the sudden loss of vision in his left eye on a flight from Beijing last week.
Now there is a lot of controversy, after Zou’s wife, Ran Yingying, made allegations against the boxer's agent.
She made the allegations in private WeChat messages - but they were leaked to the media by friends of the boxer.
In those messages, she said that there were broken bones found in Zou’s eye socket and doctors also suspected his optic nerve was damaged. She says her husband suffered similar injuries in 2014 - but at the time Zou needed to fight as the bout had been arranged by his agent. After that match, the doctors had advised Zou to stop fighting or risked becoming blind.
She claimed the boxer's agent owed them millions, but never gave any specific details on the matter.
Seca, a Chinese sports marketing company, which became Zou’s agent after the boxer successfully defended his Olympic title at the 2012 London Games, reacted to the allegations.
Obviously, the completely deny what Zou's wife had claimed in the messages.
There is apparently also a legal battle brewing, because Seca is claiming that Zou prematurely ended their contract and self-promoted the July fight against Japan's Sho Kimura - which saw the Chinese superstar suffer a shocking TKO defeat.
“Each boxer would need to go through a medal check up before they start and signed documents which have to be endorsed by all parties involved,” said the agent. “If Zou had been forced to fight, he could easily lodge complaints to the governing body.
“The fight (against Sho Kimura in July ) has violated our agreement and damaged our legitimate right as his agent. At the moment, legal proceedings are in progress and the so-called reports on 'SECA owes Zou millions of dollars and has taken the capital of Zou’s office' are all groundless.”