WBO interim heavyweight champion “Juggernaut” Joe Joyce (15-0, 14 KOs) and challenger Zhilei “Big Bang” Zhang (24-1-1, 19 KOs) faced off at the final press conference today for their clash Saturday on ESPN+ from the Copper Box Arena in London.
Joe Joyce: “I’ve got the WBO interim, I don’t know how close I could be to a world title. All the others seem to be running scared or doing their own little things. I want the fight to happen, but I get how things work with the governing bodies and I can only fight what’s put in front of me…I respect Zhang’s power and I won’t be going in there recklessly, and also he’s a southpaw so that’s more of a tricky style than I’m used to.”
Zhilei Zhang: “He’g got a tough chin, great stamina, but I’m the Big Bang right here. I bang everything!”
Joyce is a 10:1 favorite.
I think Zhang might pull it off ,cant wait for this one.This is the biggest heavyweight fight this year as far as I know with Uysk Fury off the table.
I’m with you. I’m giving Zhang a very good shot at pulling off the upset. I had him winning the Filip Hrgovic fight and supposedly Filip was the boogeyman of the division and although the fight was competitive it’s obvious Zhang punished Filip pretty badly and made him look anything but the terror everyone made him out to be.
50/50 chance will be a great scrap or absolute snoozefest because both move like sloths. I pick Joyce late KO 8/9 because Zhang was out of gas Vs Filip Hrgovic after like 6 rounds.
Joyce’s greatest strengths are his non-stop aggressiveness, chin, and being heavy-handed. The ingredients in this recipe could challenge anybody in front of him after the bell rings. Zhang, the southpaw, has a good jab and left cross. Zhang is durable and can stand toe-to-toe. I think Joyce is hungry for this fight as he knows it’s the next big step for bigger things to come. Joyce with a SD.
This match would be epic if an absolutely bombed out of his mind oscar del a Hoya is announcing it. He will be saying stuff like joyce just keeps coming forward like he did an eight ball of fish scale coke. Hey al Bernstein hand me the bottle of Cuervo under your chair. What a match. I have big news coming up I’m fighting bareknuckle now. Yea I decided that after 3 good lines of meth on my way over here. What a fight.
I think you yourself should put the crack pipe down bobby. I bet your dream is for you to join De La Hoya with an 8Ball and some Cuervo cause i can tell you would absolutely jump at the chance.
I will be drinking Cuervo with delahoya and Bernstein at the club with about 50 hot women. You will still be in your moms basement watching the fight on youtube.
Lol Joyce was knocked out 3 times in the first around as a 27 year old amateur. Joyce was wearing head gear when he got knocked out. Joyce doesn’t have a great chin.
Lolol head gear doesn’t protect your chin. It also doesn’t stop your brain from being rattled which is what causes a knockout. Headgears main purpose is to protect from cuts.
Harry Sachs: In amateurs the ref gives a count after even just a hard punch landed, or at times even stops the fight if the fighter just looks too unsteady, so not a comparison with pros. Everybody knows this obvious difference.
I think a lot of people are looking at Zhang as a very live underdog. I’m still taking Joyce, but I have a feeling that this is going to be a VERY good fight.
I was very surprised with Zhang’s showing against Hrgovic. I passed judgement on him after his performance with Jerry Forrest and he really showed me that he was much better then he showed in that fight. Some even thought he deserved the decision against Hrgovic. I did not but it was a competitive fight.
Still…Joyce seems like this generations George Foreman. He may not be as good as George but his chin is better I believe. He may be remembered with Chuvalo, Cobb, Mercer, and Tua for chin. Man he can take a shot! Even though Zhang is better then I thought, if he cannot hurt Joyce…how does he beat him? I think Joyce stops him mid to late.
Yeah, Foreman/Joyce is an excellent comparison, Pete. They have some different attributes: Foreman’s better overall and a better puncher, but Joyce’s chin is better and his motor, in general, is as well; but the base fighter in there is very similar imo.
Lol yeah Joyce chin is better because Daniel Dubois didn’t knock him down. You do realize Foreman fought steroid cheats like Holyfield , Tommy Morrison and Shannon Briggs and neither knocked him down so how does Joyce have a better chin?
Foreman also only got tired in one fight in his prime and that was against Ali. That doesn’t mean he had poor stamina. A young Foreman was much quicker than Joyce, had better footwork , was better at cutting off the ring, was better at using his hands. ect.
And had a better chin than Joyce. I like Joyce and tend to consider Foreman as slightly over rated, but there is no comparison of the two. George is an ATG and Joyce has a lot yet to prove.
Foreman was a better fighter than Joe Joyce. I didn’t say he had “poor stamina” either, you came up with that. That’s all yours. So if you’re trying to explain to me why Foreman was better, overall, you’re preaching to the choir.
However, Joe Joyce has some of the most awful defense I have ever seen on a halfway decent fighter and I have seen him walk through shots that I did not see Foreman do because he had a better defense than he got credit for. He did block a lot with his face, but got a lot with his shell as well. Joyce doesn’t have a ko loss and despite all the “steroid cheats” never knocking George down – Ron Lyle did. Did it multiple times too.
George got hit flush on the chin by Frazier in the 1st round of their 1st fight and hardly blinked. Ron Lyle was a monster puncher, well beyond anyone JJ has fought.
I like Joyce, but he has a pretty thin resume and shouldn’t be mentioned in the same sentencec as Foreman.
We’ll have to agree to disagree on that Dave because I don’t see the problem. I don’t think it’s disrespectful. I think that I could go lower than Joyce and you wouldn’t have a problem with it. If I said, hypothetically…. Larry Donald was faster than George, had better defense and was better coordinated is that a bad thing? He wasn’t a quarter of the overall fighter that George was, but if you compare them, he did a few things better than George did. There’s nothing wrong with that imo.
Lol George Foreman was never knocked out in one round by anybody. Joyce was knocked out 3 times as a amateur. Also you do realize Holyfield knocked down Ray Mercer but Holyfield couldn’t knock down a old Fat Foreman so how is Mercer’s chin better?
Do you even watch boxing kid? Well clearly not if you think Joyce has a great chin. This guy is 37 years old and only fought one person who is considered a hard puncher. But some how that means Joyce has a great chin?
Joyce’s chin hasn’t failed him as a pro yet, but he was clearly hurt to the body by Bryant Jennings in the first round of that fight. Maybe Zhang can find some success there as well…
USFBulls727: Good reminder, the quick moving Bryant Jennings gave Joyce such a tough fight. Even thought if it were a 15 rounder Joyce would have struggled much more.
pete: Agree, Joyce is this generation’s Foreman, because this generation does not have the depth of talent of the previous generation i.e. Joyce is not as good as Forman was, but he is what we have now as our generation’s Foreman.
Recon Zhang stuns Joyce early in the fight and possibly even drops Joyce, like he did Hrgović, but Joyce recovers and then it is Zhang who finds himself on the canvas and counted out later in the fight.
This is one of those fights I can’t wait to see. Likes I said 2023 is turning out to be a great year for boxing after 2022 was a letdown.
Looking forward to this one. If Joyce wins he has certainly more than deserved a title fight. I can see Zhang giving him a very tough fight.
Zhang can crack, but he is older and has poor l. Mid to late round stoppage for the more durable Joyce
I have never seen Zhang fight but i have seen the Juggernaut fight. He has a solid chin, A huge punch and Salas as trainer.
The Juggernaut is going to flatten him with a big bang
Are we really comparing Joe Joyce to George Foreman??!!!! I guess some people believe Ladislao Mijangos isn’t too far behind Muhammad Ali either or perhaps comparing James Holly with Lennox Lewis warrants a debate for hours in a pub with two devoted boxing fans??
Haha Ladislao Mijangos, I remember his fight with Foreman.
Surprised Joyce is a 10:1 favorite here. I would have thought maybe 2:1 or 3:1. Not much of a gambler at all, and I’m leaning towards Joyce, but I’d be tempted to take Zhang @ 10:1 and hope for the best. Looking forward to this one.
The Juggernaut, winner in 10 ( or 12, if it’s a twelve rounder ), or winner by a possible TKO in the late rounds. But we might also see something unexpected, where Zhang knocks down Joyce at some point. I just think that everybody is always underestimating Joe. He just gets things done, much like a vintage George Forman.
Harry Sachs, steroids don’t strengthen your chin. Is even argue that other than bigger muscles(that you still have to put in work for)that it’s not a “performance enhancing drug”. Aderrall is likely more performance enhancing than steroids.
Wrong. Steroids help you recover quicker, get stronger faster, help you get faster, help your overall conditioning, and just give you an overall advantage over the guy who isn’t on them. They are without a doubt performance enhancing.
I am rooting for Zhang, I think he can pull it off, but it wont be an easy task.
This fight is guaranteed to end in a knockout. Two power punching giants.
Zhang is like bad milk.
Tomorrow is the expiration date, Pal.