Xu lands 'dream' world title as dedication, diet bear fruit

Who knew that fruit salad was the real breakfast of champions?

Xu Can did.

The fleet-footed featherweight from Suzhou, Jiangsu province, became the third Chinese boxer to win a professional world title by wresting the WBA crown from Puerto Rico's Jesus Rojas on Saturday night at the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas.

Xu, who arrived in the US on Jan 11 and trained on a fruit salad-heavy diet under coach Pedro Diaz to remain at the 126-pound limit, won a 12-round unanimous decision by scores of 118-110, 117-111 and 116-112. There were no knockdowns, and neither fighter was staggered.

China Daily's scorecard had Xu winning 118-111.

En route to improving to 16-2, the 24-year-old from Beijing's M23 Boxing Club dominated Rojas (26-3-2) with a two-fisted attack that saw him repeatedly land four-and five-punch combinations on the frustrated Puerto Rican, who was making his second title defense.

Combined with superb lateral movement, the sheer volume of Xu's punches kept the shorter Rojas at long range for most of the fight, and on the rare occasions the Puerto Rican was able to bull his way inside, Xu punished him with vicious uppercuts.

With the victory, Xu joins Xiong Chaozhong (former WBC strawweight champ) and two-time Olympic gold medalist Zou Shiming (former WBO flyweight champ) as the only Chinese boxers to win professional world titles.

"I was a bit slow to warm up, but I stuck with the fight plan my coaches came up with," said Xu. "They wanted me to protect my chin and keep moving right to left to stay away from Rojas' power, and that's what I did."

Fighting in the same arena where Yao Ming starred for so many years with the NBA's Houston Rockets was another incentive.

"Yao fought on this court, so I think this is a blessed place for Chinese," said Xu. "I heard people shouting my name in Chinese to encourage me.

"I was so excited when the judges announced I was the winner. I have been practicing boxing since the age of 16 and have long dreamed of winning the golden belt. Today, my dream has finally come true."

Zheng Lu, a member of China's national women's boxing team, is currently training in Houston. She and a few team members were part of the sold-out crowd.

"I'm so glad to have the opportunity to watch Xu fight for the title in the US. I'm very happy that China is also on the world stage of boxing. As a boxer myself, I'm very proud of Xu. I am learning from him by watching him fight. In my eyes he is like a warrior."

Xu trained with Filipino boxing legend Genesis Servania at M23 for more than two months before traveling to the US, and the advance preparation was evident from the opening bell as Xu quickly set the pace.

"We did a lot preparation for this fight," said Liu Gang, a former boxer turned promoter who works with Xu in China. "Xu's coach, Pedro Diaz, has trained more than 20 world and Olympic champions. Together they did a thorough study of Rojas' style and they were fully prepared.

"The mission at M23 is to produce at least five more Chinese champions by the year 2023. We will work more with the international community and bring more Chinese fighters to the US because this is the world's largest boxing market."

Xu said he will now concentrate on improving his strength.

"This is another starting point for me because there are more powerful opponents waiting," said the new world champion.

"I hope that when the opportunities come, I can fight the champions of the other sanctioning bodies and even challenge the WBA super champion."