Zhang willing to give Joyce a rematch, Juggernaut undecided if he’ll do that

By Boxing News - 04/15/2023 - Comments

By Brian Webber: Zhilei Zhang (25-1-1, 20 KOs) is willing to give Joe ‘The Juggernaut’ Joyce (15-1, 14 KOs) a rematch in London or Beijing after stopping him in the sixth round to rip his WBO interim heavyweight title away from him at the Copper Arena.

(Courtesy: Queensberry Promotions)

Joyce says he’s not sure if he’ll take the rematch, and he says he needs to talk to his team about whether that’s the right move.

He says he might take a fight instead of a rematch with the hard-hitting southpaw Zhang, who looked a level above him tonight in the power and skills department.

Joyce obviously realizes that he would be putting his career in serious jeopardy if he were to fight Zhang again, and it might not be worth the risk.

Zhang’s powerful left hand caused Joyce’s right eye to close completely, resulting in the ringside doctor stopping the fight tonight. Joyce said that he was able to handle the power of Zhang without any problems, but his eye was the problem.

Once Joyce’s right eye began to swell up in the third, Zhang attacked it with left hands, causing it to close entirely by the sixth.

Zhang’s left hand was unstoppable

Gareth A. Davies: “Joe, you’re obviously disappointed tonight. I can see your right eye is completely closed. What didn’t go right tonight?” said Gareth via talkSPORT Boxing.

Joe Joyce: “Just getting hit with that left hand over and over. I couldn’t get away from it. He was quick, and he’s strong, powerful, and experienced.

“Credit to him and his team for getting the win. When you take risks sometimes things don’t go your way. I’m disappointed, but I’ll be back. It’s not the end of my journey. If I decided to rematch him, I’ll be back and I’ll be reviewing my loss to see where I can make improvements.

“I’m massively disappointed. I thought I’d get the win tonight. Sometimes it doesn’t go your way, and that’s what happened.”

Gareth:  “What happened, I think, from our perspective anyway and certainly from yours. He was able to create angles with that left hand. He’s deceptive with the way he moves. He’s not a great footworker, but he does create angles with that left hand.”

Joyce: “Yeah, my eye, I’m completely fine, but now it’s closed up. I can’t see out of it now, but it’s really disappointing to get a loss, but I’ll be back. I’ll have to go back to the drawing board. I haven’t fought a southpaw in a long time.

“I just need to look at the tape.  I thought I could carry on. I was taking his shots fine, but it’s just unfortunate that his eye closed up I’ll be back.”

Joyce unsure if he’ll take rematch

Gareth: “He took a sneaky look at you when Ismael Salas told you to bring it on in the fifth or sixth round when he was throwing punches. For you to come back even harder and he sat back and he sneakily attacked your eye for the last five or six minutes of the fight.

“Howard Foster and the doctor decided that you can’t fight with one eye.”

YouTube video

Joyce: “Now it’s an eye for an eye now that I got my eye done.”

Gareth: “He said to me five minutes ago, ‘If Joe Joyce wants a rematch, I’ll give him a rematch.’ I said, ‘Where?’ And he said, ‘London or Beijing,’ he doesn’t mind. So would you like a rematch with him?”

Joyce: “Yeah, possibly. I’ll discuss it with my team what my options are. It doesn’t look good taking rematches recently. Maybe I’ll take another one in the meantime or something like that.

“I’ll just say sorry to my friends, and my family. I thought I’d get the win here, but I’ll be back.”

Gareth: “The Juggernaut,’ just park the brakes for a moment and then come back and have a look. You’ll work it out. You know what you’re doing. He was sneaky in there tonight. He showed his experience. He took advantage of the things that he was able to see through his own experience.

“When your eye was closing, he focused on hitting that eye over and over again.”

Joyce: “Yeah, it’s like what I did. I got a little bit of payback. Maybe it’s karma.”

Gareth: “No, it’s never karma. You come back much calmer next time.”