The Chinese giant lost to AJ in the super-heavyweight quarter-finals at the 2012 Olympics in London. The rest is history, with Joshua going on to gold there and then world heavyweight title glory in the paid ranks.
Zhang meanwhile has had a quieter journey since turning professional. He may be 22-0 with 17 wins inside the distance, but few of those wins have come against top-level big men.
Now promoted by Eddie Hearn and Matchroom, he is preparing for an important test against Jerry Forest (26-4) on the Canelo Alvarez/Avni Yildirim undercard in Miami on February 27. It will air live on DAZN in the UK and the United States.
Time is not on the side of the 37-year-old Zhang, and victory over Forrest is imperative if he is to keep alive his dream of one day challenging AJ.
“I would love to fight AJ in China because of our amateur backgrounds,” he said.
“The venue is there, the Bird’s Nest holds 100,000, so we have it all. Beijing and Shanghai are the biggest cities, very economically developed and boxing in China is growing. The sports fans there like boxing, they like AJ, so if we can make it happen it would be huge for boxing.
“I took a week off after the last fight (a knockout victory over Devin Vargas last November) and was right back into the gym.
“Shaun George is a great trainer, he’s very professional and dedicated, Terry and Tommy Lane my advisors are making things happen on their end and the whole team have made this camp great and it’s gone so well.
“It was a good performance last time out but we’ve seen what I can do better and in this camp we’ve focused on that, and we have also worked on becoming stronger so I will be prepared for Jerry.
“Jerry has a good record and I respect him a lot. We’ve studied him and know all about him. I hope that when it comes to the fight, we put on a good show for the fans.”
February 27 will be the second time Zhang has fought on a Canelo undercard. He also featured when the Mexican megastar defeated Miguel Cotto in Las Vegas in November 2015.
He said: “I’m excited to be on the same card as Canelo, he’s an amazing fighter in the ring and a great businessman outside the ring.
“It’s a big plus and it gives me the chance to showcase my skills to a huge audience and build to bigger fights later in the year.”
