Boxing champ's $120,000 award angers residents

China's first professional boxing champion Xiong Chaozhong has been awarded 750,000 yuan ($120,400) and a house in his hometown, angering residents who feel the money could have been spent on the poor.

Maguan in Wenshan Zhuang and Miao autonomous prefecture, Southeast China's Yunnan province is a national-level poverty-stricken county where many argued the large amount of money should have helped many low-income families, not awarded to a miner turned boxing champion.

The money was awarded to encourage more people to learn Xiong's spirit to keep on striving and never give up, Yunnan authorities said.

Xiong, the proud holder of the World Boxing Council's minimumweight belt, became China's first professional boxing champion after beating Mexico's Javier "The Beast" Martinez in Kunming WBC's championship last year.