Joe Joyce got exposed big time by Zhilei Zhang last Saturday night, getting hit with repeated left hands from the two-time Chinese Olympian until he needed to be pulled out of the fight by the ringside doctor during the sixth round at the Copper Box Arena in London.
Zhilie confided with Gareth Davies that he believed that Joyce (15-1, 14 KOs) was too slow to stop his left hand from landing, and that proved to be the case because he hit him with those same shots the entire fight, causing his right eye to swell closed by the sixth.
Had the ringside doctor not stopped the fight, Joyce would have likely been knocked out at some point because he getting hammered in the sixth by Zhilei.
During that round, Zhang (25-1-1, 20 KOs) reeled off a five-punch combination that caused referee Howard Foster to stop the action and march the one-eyed Joyce over to the ringside doctor to have his vision checked out of his damaged right eye.
After the fight, Joyce was noncommittal about whether he’ll utilize his rematch clause to force a second fight with Zhang. If Joyce goes take the rematch, he could be flushing his career down the toilet because he’s not going to gain hand speed and he’ll continue to be hit by Zhang’s left hands. That’s not going to improve in the rematch.
Zhang couldn’t miss with left hand
“Joe is a slow starter, and Zhang took advantage of that,” said Gareth A. Davies to iFL TV when asked if there was some complacent with Joe Joyce that led to his loss to Zhilei Zhang.
“It was mainly the left hand, wasn’t it? He didn’t really throw a lot else. He ended up not missing with it, and that left hand.
“He’s milking it,” said a fawning Gareth as Zhang walked by him during the interview. “He’s won a legion of new fans here [in London]. It’s a great moment for him and for Chinese boxing.
“It’s brilliant. He’s garnered a lot of new fans here because he’s similar to Joe. His left hand exposed Joe today. Joe needs to go back to the drawing board and work on it.
“It was a really disappointing night for Joe Joyce, but Zhilei Zhang needs a lot of praise for showing what a great chin he’s got, and how clever he was in there. His Vast experience. He could see that he could pop his left hand.
“What we knew going into this is that Zhang isn’t the most mobile out there, but he’s able to create brilliant angles with his left hand by swaying. He finds those angles. He popped that left hand out in the first four rounds, and he couldn’t miss. He won those first four rounds. Joe’s eye started to close
“He even took a round off when Joe started coming forward. He covered up brilliantly, and then he popped back on that left eye. He’s had enough fights, he’s so experienced that he knew he could get sneakily through there.
“He [Zhang] told that he had a feeling that Joe was too slow for his left hand, and he exposed him with the left hand tonight,” said Gareth.
Joyce might delay rematch
Joe will be back. Zhang also told me that if Joe wants a rematch, he’ll take the rematch here or in London, but he’d like to fight Usyk or Fury next,” Gareth said.
“But if Joe wants a rematch, he’ll take the rematch. Joe said he might need a fight in the middle if he does fight him again. He wins some he loses some. Joe got beat by a guy who had a clever game plan tonight, who landed his left hand over and over and over again. He couldn’t miss with it.
“In the end, I don’t think Joe was in danger of being stopped there. If he’d gone beyond six or seven rounds, he might have been able to get to Zhang, but he needed a couple of strong rounds to take something out of Zhang.
“It was a fantastic performance from Zhang tonight. Joe Joyce will suck it up and come back. I think so,” said Gareth when asked if the ringside doctor made the correct decision to stop the fight.
“I spoke to Joe up there, and he said, ‘I don’t feel damaged. I don’t feel out of it. I just can’t see out of my right eye. It’s completely closed. You can’t be one-eyed in a fight like that,” said Davies.
Zhang belongs with top group
“He said that maybe it’s karma for what he did to Daniel Dubois,” said Gareth. “Let’s just hope he comes back calmer after this. He’s got to avoid getting hit over and over and over by the left hand,” said Davies when asked what Joyce needs to do for him to win the rematch.
“That won Zhang the first four rounds tonight. Clearly won him the first four rounds tonight, and he couldn’t miss with it. He needs to work with slipping & sliding with those punches and getting to Zhang earlier. Maybe Zhang has his number. You just don’t know.
“Zhang proved that he is worthy of being in that top group tonight with what he did with Joe Joyce. Styles make fights. It’s heavyweight boxing. Anything can happen,” said Davies.
