Nearly four years after a fifth-round knockdown ended his first world title bid, Zhang Peimian is returning for another shot at Jonathan Di Bella and the ONE Strawweight Kickboxing World Championship.
The fight is scheduled for Friday, July 17, at Lumpinee Stadium in Bangkok, Thailand, in the main event of The Inner Circle 22. It will stream exclusively for members via live.onefc.com. According to Yahoo Sports, the rematch has been more than three and a half years in the making.
Their first meeting at ONE 162 in October 2022 was a five-round war. Zhang, who was 19 at the time, went blow for blow with Di Bella throughout the contest. His left hook and low kicks landed consistently, and he made the Italian-Canadian southpaw work for every inch of the fight. Di Bella, however, landed a head kick in the fifth round that produced a knockdown, a moment that proved decisive when the judges awarded him a unanimous decision.
Zhang left that night without the title and with lessons that, in his own words, could only be learned the hard way.
"I would tell him that there is no winning before the final bell rings. Give everything you have before that last second."
That was Zhang reflecting on what he would say to the 19-year-old version of himself who walked into that first fight.
Di Bella also succeeded in getting inside Zhang's head during the contest, and the psychological dimension of the fight was one the younger fighter was not equipped to handle at the time. Zhang acknowledges that directly.
"My weapons are sharpened, and my mind is stronger. He was taunting me during the whole fight, and I fell for it in the moment. It won't happen again."
Di Bella arrives at the rematch in strong form. The 29-year-old carries a 15-1 career record and has won three consecutive bouts entering the fight. He is a lifelong New York Knicks fan and one of the more complete strikers in the ONE Championship strawweight division.
Zhang is now 22. The gap between 19 and 22 may sound small, but in combat sports, the distance can be significant. Four years of competition, setbacks, and maturation have produced a fighter who describes himself in fundamentally different terms than the teenager who challenged for the title the first time.
The fight card goes live from Lumpinee Stadium on July 17.
