Xu Can (; born March 9, 1994) is a Chinese

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

who held the

WBA (Regular) The World Boxing Association (WBA), formerly known as the National Boxing Association (NBA), is the oldest and one of four major organizations which sanction professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Council (WBC), International Boxi ...

featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, t ...

title from 2019 to 2021. As of December 2021, Xu is rated as the world's ninth-best active featherweight by ''The Ring'' magazine, and tenth by

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). Th ...

and BoxRec.

Professional career

Early career

Xu turned professional in 2013. His first 14 fights ended in decision, of which he was victorious in 12 of them. In his 15th fight on October 3, 2017, he recorded his first stoppage win against former

super bantamweight champion

Nehomar Cermeño Nehomar Andrés Cermeño Febres (born June 7, 1979) is a Venezuelan professional boxer who held the WBA (Regular) super bantamweight title from 2016 to 2017. He also held the WBA interim titles at bantamweight and super bantamweight between 20 ...

, prevailing via seventh-round

corner retirement A corner retirement or corner stoppage – abbreviated "RTD (Retired)" by BoxRec – are terms used in boxing to describe a fight that ends when, during any rest period between rounds, a boxer refuses to continue or their corner pulls them out, ...

. The win saw Xu capture the vacant WBA International featherweight title.

WBA (Regular) featherweight champion

Xu vs. Rojas

Xu was rewarded for his twelve fight winning streak with the opportunity to challenge the reigning WBA (Regular) featherweight champion Jesús Rojas. The bout was scheduled for the undercard of the

Jaime Munguia Jaime is a common Spanish and Portuguese male given name for Jacob (name), James (name), Jamie, or Jacques. In Occitania Jacobus became ''Jacome'' and later ''Jacme''. In east Spain, ''Jacme'' became ''Jaime'', in Aragon it became ''Chaime'', and ...

and Takeshi Inoue WBO super-welterweight title fight, which took place at the

Toyota Center Toyota Center is an indoor arena located in Houston. It is named after the Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota. The arena is home to the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA), and it was once the home of the Hous ...

in Houston, Texas, on January 26, 2019, and was broadcast by

DAZN DAZN ( "da zone") is a global sports entertainment platform. Different to traditional linear and satellite broadcasting, DAZN is an over-the-top (OTT) streaming service meaning that it is delivered directly to viewers via the internet. The ...

and Canal Space. Xu won the fight, which BoxingScene dubbed an early candidate for "Fight of the Year", by unanimous decision. He was awarded scorecards of 116–112, 117–111 and 118–110. Both fighters threw a combined 2574 strikes total, with Xu landing 380 and Rojas 388 total punches. Xu became only the third Chinese world boxing champion, after

Xiong Chaozhong Xiong Chaozhong or Xiong Zhaozhong (born October 3, 1982) is a Chinese professional boxer. He is the first Chinese/Hmong to win a boxing world title, having held the WBC mini-flyweight title from 2012 to 2014. Early life Xiong was born in rura ...

and

Zou Shiming Zou Shiming (; born 18 May 1981) is a Chinese former professional boxer who competed from 2013 to 2017 and held the WBO flyweight title from 2016 to 2017. As an amateur, Zou is China's most successful boxer of all time. In the light-flyweight div ...

Xu vs. Kubo

Xu made his first title defense against the former WBA Regular featherweight champion Shun Kubo on May 26, 2019, at the Fuzhou Sports Center Gymnasium in his native

Fuzhou, Jiangxi Fuzhou (,), also known as Gandong (), is a prefecture-level city in the northeastern part of Jiangxi province, People's Republic of China. Fuzhou is located to the south of the provincial capital Nanchang, bordered in the east by Fujian Province ...

. He successfully retained his title with a sixth-round technical knockout of Kubo. Xu first knocked Kubo down near the end of the third round, before stopping the Japanese challenger with a flurry of punches at the 1:16 minute mark of the sixth round.

Xu vs. Robles III

In his next title defense, Xu defeated Manny Robles III by unanimous decision, with scores of 120–108, 119–109, 118–110, on November 23.

Failed Warrington negotiations

Talks were held in 2020 and early 2021 to try to make Xu's third defense of his title against the

IBF The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...

champion at the time,

Josh Warrington Josh Warrington (born 14 November 1990) is an English professional boxer. He is a two-time world featherweight champion, having held the IBF title between 2018 and 2022. At regional level, he held the British, Commonwealth, European and WBC I ...

. However, the fight was postponed due to disagreements from both sides: Xu wanted fans present at the fight, and Warrington refused to leave the United Kingdom to fight on Chinese soil. The chances of Xu and Warrington ever fighting were dramatically reduced when Warrington subsequently vacated his IBF title and then lost to the unheralded

Mauricio Lara Mauricio Lara Acosta (born 23 February 1998) is a Mexican professional boxer. He held the WBA featherweight title in 2023. As of October 2022, Lara is ranked as the world's best active featherweight by the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board, ...

in February 2021, when he was sensationally knocked out by Lara in an upset defeat.

Xu vs. Wood

On July 6, 2021, it was announced that Xu would be defending his WBA (Regular) title against British featherweight champion Leigh Wood in Brentwood, England on July 31 as part of Matchroom's Fight Camp. Despite being a -350 favorite, Xu was outboxed during periods of the fight, and suffered an upset defeat via twelfth-round technical knockout.

Personal life

Xu was born in

, and has since moved his residence to

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

. His parents were pastry-makers, and he was encouraged by his father to pursue a career in boxing. When Xu dropped out of junior high school during his third year, he joined China's only professional boxing club at the time, named Zhongwei, in Kunming,

Yunnan Yunnan , () is a landlocked province in the southwest of the People's Republic of China. The province spans approximately and has a population of 48.3 million (as of 2018). The capital of the province is Kunming. The province borders the C ...

where he began training as a boxer.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

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Xu Can - Profile, News Archive & Current Rankings
a
Box.Live
{{DEFAULTSORT:Xu, Can 1994 births Living people Chinese male boxers Sportspeople from Suzhou Featherweight boxers Super-featherweight boxers Light-welterweight boxers World featherweight boxing champions World Boxing Association champions