China's highly popular boxing icon Zou Shimming is reportedly fighting back to a familiar venue in staging his first world title defense.

Bob Arum's Top Rank, which has made inroads in the Asian market the past few years, is heading back to Macau in holding the first title defense bout of the reigning World Boxing Organization (WBO) flyweight champion Zou Zhimming.

Like Us on Facebook

"We're planning on April 1st, we're going back to Macao at the Venetian with Zou Shiming and an all star cast," the veteran boxing promoter Arum told in a published report of the BoxingScene.com on Tuesday.

Shiming (9-1, 2 KO's), who is currently trained by Hall of Famer Freddie Roach, recently claimed the vacant WBO flyweight belt after beating Thailand's Prasitsak Phaprom with a unanimous decision on Nov. 5 as an undercard match of the Manny Pacquiao-Jessie Vargas pay-per-view from the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Shiming impressed all the three judges of the fight who scored the bout with 120-107, 120-107, 119-108 all in favor of the Zunyi native, according to Sky Sports.

"You have to understand, when Zou Shiming won the title here in Las Vegas and the fight was on in China on Sunday morning with (Manny) Pacquiao and (Jessie) Vargas, we did over 90 million homes watching that fight," Arum said.

Arum also said that the Asian audiences have developed an appetite for boxing.

"Absolutely, and the biggest supporter is the president, Xi Jinping, who is a really big, big boxing fan, a huge boxing fan," the Top Rank's CEO stated.

The 35-year-old pugilist was considered to pave the way for the sport of boxing to be followed and to be appreciated by the Chinese audience. In his comeback fight last Jan. 30, 2016, Shiming generated a remarkable 6.5 million TV viewers in China and an impressive 30 million live stream audience.

The famous Chinese athlete became the country's first world champion in the field of the professional boxing. He has won two Olympic gold medals in Beijing and London and took the bronze in Athens.

TagsZou Shiming, Top Rank, WBO, Macau, Bob Arum