Joseph Obey Joyce vs. Zhāng Zhìlěi & Denzel Bentley vs. Kieran Smith RBR.

Compared to other heavyweights, he has fought really good competition for such a short career.

 

Who is his best wins, would you say?

 

Dubois or Parker. Doesn't sound impressive first, but for a 5 year long career it's very good.

 

I'd you ignore the fact he's 37

 

Well good luck to Joe in the future but i doubt you are right on this one

 

His mum is registered as legally blind I think. She probably didn't have much insight as people think.

 

Yeah, that was some **** officiating from foster. Whether the couple of seconds Joyce gained made any real difference I dunno. Joyce did go on to dominate the last minute of round two, though, even after Zhangs second flurry.

 

Not suggesting the weight loss of Joyce would have changed the outcome, as Zhangs left mitt was like a missile locked on to its target time and time again, and Joyce was nigh on inviting it with no head movement.

However do folk actually think such a weight loss was intentional,?

I realise hindsight is a wonderful thing, but if it is not broken then don't fix it.

Ah well Zhang was the deserved victor and Joyce did not have a post fight melt down, or offer a range of excuses, he took his defeat as any fighter should.

 

Eh, I see where you're coming from but his confidence didn't seem broken to me personally. He seemed disappointed, sure, but he also seemed to take the loss in stride and I think this will be a learning experience for him. Since I don't know the man personally though, the best gauge for that will be when he fights again but that's just my two cents. I could be wrong and we turn out to have another AJ situation on our hands, or hell he could decide not to fight ever again. I'm predicting this loss will turn out to be a good thing for both guys, since Zhang will now have more opportunities and now that the air of invincibility is gone Joyce probably will get the chance for better fights as well. But we just gotta wait and see.

As far as being champion, I agree that time isn't on his side, even with the two belt holders likely to retire sometime within the next couple of years. The road to recovery for him will have to be a fast one. I've already heard there might be a rematch, which I believe would be a mistake on his part... Then again, that could just be my distaste for rematches talking

 

The weight loss was intentional. Joyce's plan was to highguard, stick and move for the first 4 rounds then overwhelm with volume. Issue is, Zhang got the measure of Joyce at the beginning of round 1 already and was counterpunching and beating his high guard. So Joyce tried to up the tempo from ro 3-4, but that left him more open for Zhang's hard counters.

Zhang being a tricky southpaw was a nightmare for Joyce. He couldn't get the distance right against Zhang and was standing in the wrong place. Zhang also doesn't really throw jabs (he paws) so Joyce couldn't get his jab game going. Both Joyce's offense and defense start from his jab. He really really just got shut down hard. I don't really see what 20 pounds extra would have done for him, it likely would have just made him slower.