Zhilei Zhang made light work of Joe Joyce inside London’s Wembley Arena on Saturday.
‘Big Bang’ proved far too good for the ‘Juggernaut’ in April, inflicting the first defeat of Joyce’s professional career by way of TKO after the Brit sustained significant damage to his right eye.
In preparation for the rematch, Joyce spoke about correcting the “mistakes” that saw him so easily defeated. Having come in almost a stone lighter than his opponent the first time around, Joyce piled on the pounds to reach a career-high weight of over 20st.
That did not work either. Joyce was sluggish, tentative and frankly lethargic during the fight, failing to throw anything meaningful and looking rocked as soon as Zhang picked him off on the inside. By the time Zhang felled Joyce with a spiteful haymaker in the third round, it felt as if ‘The Juggernaut’ had already lasted too long.
Quite where he goes from here is unclear. Credit must be afforded for taking a rematch laced with risk but it may well have cost him his top level career.
