In 2010 the WBO created the "WBO China Zone Heavyweight title" (I'm not making this up sadly). The first bout for this title saw Chinese fighter Jiang Hang defeat Russian
Egor Eliseev for the belt. Whilst I'm not sure what Eliseev was doing fighting for the title I completely understand Jiang Hang fighting for the belt, and have no real issue with him winning the title. Since then however the title has made little to no sense.
In 2011 the title was made vacant and allowed American born Kiwi Chauncy Welliver to fight American veteran Rob Calloway for the title. Yes, an American v a New Zealander fighting for the China Zone title, someone failed geography somewhere (I'm not saying it wasn't me, but I don't think it was me this time). That bout saw Welliver winning a decision over Calloway to claim the title.
An amazing 8 months after winning the title Welliver was to make his first title defense, this time against American based Bahamian Sherman "The Tank" Williams. Yeah don't ask how a fighter from New Zealand can defend a China Zone title against a guy from the Bahama's because I've not a clue either. Surprisingly Williams defeated Welliver (by 12 round majority decision) to claim the title and we now have the bizarre situation of a fighter from the Caribbean.
What makes this story even more interesting is the fact China has been handing out a number of loans to the Caribbean countries (as noted in this article from the New York Times)...Maybe China really are hoping to extend their boarders this far after all despite fact there is some 8000+ miles between the two places!