Zhilei Zhang scored the “sweetest knockout ever” when her opponent fell to the ground in dramatic fashion following a shoulder strike.

Zhilei Zhang is a fierce knockout artist, but even he was surprised to finish off one of his opponents with a shoulder punch.

In August 2014, the Chinese heavyweight’s professional boxing debut came to a bizarre end when Curtis Lee Tate succumbed to his power in the opening seconds of the first round.

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Tate, who was 7-4 at the time, was behind from the opening bell as Zhang charged forward and let his hands go early.

The Olympic silver medalist trapped Tate against the ropes with his leg kick before unleashing a three-punch combination that ended his debut.

Tate dropped to his knees before falling face first onto the canvas.

Referee Jay Nady refused to count and immediately ruled out the mismatch.

Slow-motion replays of the fight’s ending sequence showed that Zhang didn’t actually land any of his punches as they hit Tate’s gloves and left shoulder.

Former boxing trainer Teddy Atlas was on commentary duty and he quickly began mocking Tate for his 17-second knockout loss following a wayward shot.

He said: “Sometimes you see a fighter with a glass jaw, this one has a glass glove. His left glove is hit then the other hits the shoulder.

“Tate has a glass shoulder. You know, usually it’s a glass chin. But he has a glass shoulder and maybe we should get doctors to take x-rays to see if they can get that glass out of that shoulder.

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“A clean punch to the shoulder and down, it’s Tate!”

“I mean, it’s a joke. I want to make fun of him because I’m frustrated. I’m frustrated for the fanbase. I’m frustrated for us. I’m frustrated for everyone involved in this sport to see something like this.

Fans quickly took to social media to call what they had witnessed “the worst fight ever”, while others wondered if Zhang had just scored the sweetest knockout in the history of boxing.

Since then, the 40-year-old has shown fight fans just how hard he hits.

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“Big Bang” has scored stoppages in 20 of his 25 wins – even toppling Filip Hrgovic and Jerry Forrest, the only blemishes in his 25-1-1 record.

In April, Zhang became the first man to beat British star Joe Joyce.

“The Juggernaut” was beaten for six rounds before referee Howard Foster stopped the fight to prevent him from suffering further unnecessary damage to his badly swollen right eye.

Zhang will look to repeat his performance in his rematch this weekend.

Joyce hopes to regain his WBO interim heavyweight title and avenge his only career defeat at the OVO Arena Wembley in London on Saturday night.

The winner will be perfectly placed to try their luck against Tyson Fury or Oleksandr Usyk who currently hold the four major heavyweight belts.