With him, he has already done this by himself. People would think, if I am great, whom I am with is supposed to be great too. The fact is that he will be with Holyfield. Because people (here in China with a number of over 1.3 billion) would love me, and it makes even bigger for him. Realistically, you know, I'd LOVE to have him.
But you know, there are about four or five people out of America trying to get him. Holyfield: Yeah, yeah, yeah, and I was once trying to have him. He is a two-time world champion and a hot favorite for an Olympic gold. Zhenyu Li: One of the advantages that some Chinese boxers have is that they were once Kung Fu practitioners, which is good for their balance, dexterity and so forth. I learned that Kung Fu is not meant to take advantage of somebody, but to protect oneself. I just wanted to make it work on somebody I wanted to do it on somebody I wanted to do the things that really work. So when you get into martial art, you have to be able to concentrate and do all of those great things, but when I was a kid, I didn't understand all these. It takes time to do it.Īs a young kid, I just wanted to do something I didn't want to take pains and time to grasp a complicated technique, you know, because at the time I didn't understand what that was for.Īll I wanted to do is to be better at somebody else. (It requires) a LOT of discipline and patience.
For Kung Fu, you have to be a lot more dedicated, flexible and all that. Holyfield: I've never fought with a Kung Fu guy.
Zhenyu Li: MMA is becoming huge in America and some top-tier pro boxers have expressed their interest in the "new hit." What's your opinion about it? Have you ever thought the same way? You got this big old country, if you are too passive, then somebody will move to your country, and then push you out of the country. If you just being passive, your opponent will push you back and you'll end up loosing your ground. So unless you want both of them to be successful, if you always defend yourself all the time and not to attack, finally you'll find yourself get knocked out. So in that sense, it allows you to have a different attitude, like somebody who is a bully, a bully is the one who attacks people, haha, you know. Like, "I don't want to hurt you, go and care about your own business."īoxing is not self-defense.
Holyfield: For Kung Fu, every time when somebody is going to hit you, you can make him look bad, like ha, they don't teach you to offend somebody, but teach you how to defend for yourself.
From a professional's prospective, what do you see in the traditional art of Chinese Kung Fu and the connection between the Mixed Martial Art and boxing? Zhenyu Li: You've been such a great achiever in boxing and in the addition learned something from the Chinese Shaolin training program. The reason is that Kung Fu is structured it's technically-sound you have to be good to go through a lot of different tests. All the kids, they started young and they all want to do Kung Fu. (A person there told me that) All my life as a kid, we were taught that Kung Fu is the best thing you can do. So I kinda felt that this program will change a LOT of lives. What they were teaching these kids was to be able to concentrate when things were hard, and be willing to stand up and counter. When you do get disappointment, what are you going to do? In this same program, they teach these kids to be able to concentrate, in a time of difficulty. What would you do when he hit back? It is that you don't change your mind you don't change your fight pattern let things go your way.
When you hit somebody, you don't expect him to hit back. So this is the way I was taught and (what I could) apply to boxing. But in their program, they go to a physical thing that makes you be able to apply, regardless. You know, people got different attitudes and all that. He can take it in, but he is lazy, he is not accustomed to applying it.