China’s Zhilei Zhang TKOs Joe Joyce in Six and Scores a Big Upset
London, UK (April 16th, 2023)– At age 39, heavyweight southpaw Zhilei ‘Big Bang’ Zhang, 25-1-1 with 20 knockouts, Bloomfield, New Jersey, by way of Zhoukou, China, a betting underdog fighting at Copper Box Arena in Hackney Wick, Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, United Kingdom on enemy territory, landed fantastic pinpoint straight lefts which closed the left eye of Joy ‘Juggernaut’ Joyce, and countered with solid right hands and body work to score a sixth round TKO over Joyce in the Real Combat Media Heavyweight Upset of the Year so far for 2023, in a battle of former Olympic Silver Medalists, on Saturday evening, April 15, 2023.
Joyce, now 15-1 with 14 knockouts, Putney, London, United Kingdom, finally faced an equal opponent, as both men stand 6’6″ with 80 inches of reach. Joyce, like Anthony Joshua did with Jermaine Franklin last week, stood up straight in front of Zhang and tried to outbox him instead of moving forward with aggression. Zhang was landing too many power shots. Joyce was answering with jabs but no thunder, a game plan which spelled doom for Joyce.
The attempt to outbox Zhang did not work, as Joyce received a bloody nose and a bloody mouth early. Zhang, hitting with the power of Earnie Shavers in his prime, turned the right eye of Joyce an eerie purple, and methodically baited Joyce to trade standing in front of him till Joyce’ entire face looked like it got bashed in. At 1:23 of round six, Zhang won the World Boxing Organisation interim World Heavyweight title when the ringside doctor stopped the bout in the presence of referee Howard Foster, who determined Joyce had taken too much facial damage and stopped the bout. To have continued the bout would have put Joyce in the situation Iran Barkley was in his middleweight title bout with Roberto Duran years ago, whereby Duran dropped Barkley with the overhand left as Barkley could not see the punches coming in with his right eye closed midway through round 11. Joyce was only in round dix, though, and taking horrible punishment before the bout was stopped. Zhang is now a top ten heavyweight worldwide, and a potential candidate for Oleksandr Usyk, Daniel Dubois or Tyson Fury.
Result: Zhilei Zhang TKO 6 Joy Joyce, Heavyweights (1:23)
Zhang wins WBO interim World Heavyweight title
WBO Supervisor: Marion Palatin. Referee: Howard Foster
Ringside doctor stopped the bout, with Joyce’ right eye purple and nearly swollen shut
Zhilei Zhang’s was a minus 1100 underdog going into this bout which made his win a major upset in the heavyweight division.
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