By Vince D’Writer: Zhilei Zhang capitalized on a big opportunity as he shocked the previously undefeated Joe Joyce (15-1, 14 KOs) by consistently landing the straight left hand and forcing a sixth-round stoppage as Zhang won the WBO Interim Heavyweight title on Saturday night at the Copper Box Arena in London, England.
Approximately eight months ago, Zhilei Zhang was in the ring battling the number one ranked IBF contender Filip Hrgovic. Despite scoring a first-round knockdown and appearing to win the majority of the rounds, Zhang fell short on the scorecards as Hrgovic was awarded the victory by way of a unanimous decision.
After experiencing a minor setback, Zhang was put in a position to make a major comeback when he signed on to face Joe Joyce. Due to the unfortunate experience, he had in his previous fight, Zhang verbalized the fact that he wanted to knock Joyce out because he didn’t want the judges to decide the outcome.
In the opening round of the Joyce-Zhang clash, the two hard-hitting heavyweights were jostling with their lead hands for the first minute of the round. When the southpaw Zhang decided to set his feet, he landed a couple of big left hands and a hard right hook.
In the second round, Zhang landed a one-two combination that stunned Joyce. Fifteen seconds later, Zhang landed a straight left that knocked Joyce off balance. Zhang’s left hand was extremely accurate, and it was starting to do cosmetic damage to Joyce’s right eye.
Joe Joyce came out in the third round trying to establish his jab and attacking his opponent’s body. Throughout the third, Joyce was throwing punches, and he displayed a good work rate, but Zhang was the boxer who landed the more eye-catching shots.
At the start of round four, the swelling around Joyce’s right eye was becoming a major issue. Once again, Joyce was trying to outwork his opponent, but Zhang continued to land the harder shots, and his accuracy remained at a high level as it seemed like he couldn’t miss with the left hand.
At the conclusion of the 5th round, Joe Joyce took a seat on his stool as his team proceeded to provide treatment to his right eye. Joyce’s eye appeared to be shut, but when his corner asked, “Can you see the left hand coming out of that eye?” Joe Joyce paused, and then he answered, “Yeah.”
When the bell sounded to start round six, the referee took a timeout so the doctor could examine Joyce’s eye. The doctor covered Joyce’s left eye and held up two fingers. Apparently, Joyce was able to see well enough to guess the number of fingers the doctor was holding up based on the fact that the fight continued.
Joyce came out firing the jab and the right hand, but his punches didn’t appear to have any power behind them. Midway through the sixth round, Zhilei Zhang landed a hard five-punch combination that influenced the referee to call another timeout.
During the timeout, the doctor looked at Joyce’s eye and proceeded to put a halt to the contest as Zhilei Zhang was awarded the TKO victory. In the past, Joyce depended on his chin to buy time while he figured out a way to knock out his opponent, but unfortunately for Joyce, the dependency failed against Zhang.
With the victory, the 39-year-old Zhilei Zhang (25-1-1, 20 KOs) became the new WBO Interim heavyweight champion. Zhang is appreciative in regards to the way the fight went, but during his post-fight interview, he spoke about the next step in his boxing journey.
“Today belongs to me, belongs to everyone that showed up. Belongs to every Chinese that showed up.” Zhang went on to say, “I’m 39 years old, but I’m disciplined, I train hard, next step, I’m going for the title.”