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)

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, this ...

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%). The ...

and

BoxRec BoxRec or boxrec.com is a website dedicated to holding updated records of professional and amateur boxers, both male and female. It also maintains a MediaWiki-based encyclopaedia of boxing. The objective of the site is to document every profe ...

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 WBA (Regular)

super bantamweight Super bantamweight, also known as junior featherweight, is a weight class in professional boxing, contested from and up to . There were attempts by boxing promoters in the 1920s to establish this weight class, but few sanctioning organizations o ...

champion Nehomar Cermeño, prevailing via seventh-round corner retirement. 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 i ...

and Takeshi Inoue

WBO The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxing ...

super-welterweight title fight, which took place at the Toyota Center 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 and Zou Shiming.

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. 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 champion at the time, Josh Warrington. 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 Fuzhou, Jiangxi, 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 A middle school (also known as intermediate school, junior high school, junior secondary school, or lower secondary school) is an educational stage which exists in some countries, providing education between primary school and secondary school ...

during his third year, he joined China's only professional boxing club at the time, named Zhongwei, in

Kunming Kunming (; ), also known as Yunnan-Fu, is the capital and largest city of Yunnan province, China. It is the political, economic, communications and cultural centre of the province as well as the seat of the provincial government. The headqua ...

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 ...

where he began training as a boxer.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

*
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