Junior bantamweight Cheng Jing (Cheng Jia Jia), of China, was born on June 16 1987 in Henan. She began boxing in 2000 and devoted herself full-time to the sport from 2005 to 2008
Before turning pro, she compiled a 11-4 amateur record, winning the first runner-up at 48 kg in the 2005 National Championship and first place at 52 kg in the 2007 National Championship.
WBAN asked Team Cheng what made her decide to get into boxing, and they said, “In 2001, Jing’s father watched her fight in the street and found that she has the fighting ability. He sent Jing to the boxing team, but unluckily women’s boxing was not approved by the Chinese Government at that time. So…Jing join the Tae Kwon Do team only. She won the Champion in Tae Kwon Do (55 kg) in the Province Game in 2002. Then, Jing’s father got a call from the head coach of the boxing team. Xian Athlete Institute established a women’s boxing team at that time, thus, Jing joined that boxing team. Jing was injured in the training and stopped in July of 2004 and she ended up quitting the boxing team. In 2005, one year before the Chinese Government approved women’s boxing. Her existing trainer was going to form a women boxing team, Jing was invited to join the team.”
Cheng made her pro debut on December 17, 2005 at the EXPO Garden Hotel in Kunming, China. She won by a TKO in the second round over debut fighter Qi Hong in a scheduled four-round bout.
On January 22, 2006 at Worldwide Automobile Plaza in Kunming, China, Cheng (113½ lbs) won a four-round unanimous decision over 19-year-old Il-Lim Jun (aka Yi-Lim Tian, 107 lbs) who was making her pro debut.
On February 12, 2006 at Garden Hotel, Yunnan, China, Cheng (112½ lbs) won a four-round unanimous decision in a rematch with Il-Lim Jun (105 lbs).
On March 4, 2006 at EXPO Garden Hotel in Kunming, China, she TKO’d pro debuter Zhen Yuan Pei in the last round of a six-round bout.
On April 15, 2006 at Chungmu Gymnasium in Daejun, South Korea, Cheng (114½ lbs) fought to a ten-round draw (94-96,96-95,
95-95) with Ji-Young Kim (115 lbs) of Seoul, South Korea for the IFBA Junior Bantamweight belt. Kim’s record moved to 6-0-1 (0 KO’s) with this result.
On December 16, 2006 at Jeongeup, Jeollabukdo, South Korea, Cheng (113¾ lbs) lost by a 10-round unanimous (98-92,96-94,
98-94) decision to Ha-Na Kim (5’4″, 114 lbs) of Ilsan, South Korea for the WBA Junior Bantamweight title. Kim improved to 7-1 with the win.
On July 28, 2007 at Wanda Plaza in Shanghai, China, she TKO’d Gong Jin of China in the fifth round of an eight-rounder. Jin fell to 2-2 (1 KO) with the loss.
On March 21, 2008 in Lu Zhou, China, Cheng (112½ lbs) easily defeated Dennapa Sakroongroang (112¾ lbs) of Bangkok, Thailand in a hastily-arranged ten-rounder for the WIBA Junior Bantamweight title. (The fight was added at short notice to a card on which WBA champ Xiyan Zhang had been scheduled for a title fight that fell through). Sakroongroang, whose record in Thailand was claimed to be 4-0 but has not been verified by WBAN, was outclassed and went down from a body shot in the fourth round and her corner threw in the towel. Cheng Jing advanced to 6-1-1 (4 KO’s) with the win.
When Cheng is not boxing, her hobbies are movies, listening to music and traveling.
Team Cheng told WBAN, “Professional just starting in China. There is not a lot of pro boxing in China. They don’t have a chance to fight overseas too. Thus, the Chinese fighters always fight in amateur bout and professional bout in the same time. The Government has no rules to stop them to fight in the professional card.”
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