Zhilei Zhang vs Joe Joyce II - September 23 // Wembley Arena

Zhang daddies him mate. As ancient as he is, Joe's lack of skill is the dealbreaker here.

 

I'll be the first to admit that Joyce's defensive tactics in the first fight were pee poor for that Zhang left hand. It's like Joyce just simply chose to ignore them rather than make a few changes.

This is why I'm sure Joyce will defiantly make changes in the next fight. And I feel that's all he needs to do to take Zhang into deep water that will hugely exploit Zhangs engine and gas tank. Joyce will be on a real personal mission next time out I think.

The fight can't come quick enough for me, lads

 

Pair of codgers.

 

lol hes back

 

i agree with you mate you put it very well if i do say so i just wonder what his trainer was telling him in his training and then in ring mate he wasnt earning his money or he couldnt of been earning it

 

Hard to find a cheap ticket for this fight. Cheapest seems to be around the £150 mark, which is a shame considering the first fight was priced well and was affordable.

 

150 for two men who will have a combined age of 80 on the night. You saved money!! I will say that ticket prices are appalingly high now.

 

Yeah, I agree, mate. There was certainly no plan B in the last fight. That says something about Ismael Salas to me.

 

If Joyce covers up better and does some sparring with a lot of southpaws in the run up to this fight then I see him stopping zhang late.

In the first fight Joyce was finishing his combinations with a nice left hook to the body and this shot will be key in the rematch

 

To be fair joes tactic of blocking everything with his face until his opponent tires out has worked so far.
It’s not a great strategy for the long term though, especially if you want to retire without brain damage.

 

There's no denying that tactic ( at it's most obvious) in the last fight. We all watched it.

This is why I'm sure Joyce will make enough ( or just enough) obvious changes to make a big difference in the re-match. I felt that's all Joyce needed to do last time, but on the fly....

So, against Zhang, that's all he needs to do to win next time. Zhang hit Joyce with the kitchen sink, Joyce made it an easy nights work for Zhang with his poor defence. Zhang couldn't get him out of there though, and Zhang had slowed considerably in the last round and a half or so. Joyce still had plenty left engine wise

I'm sure Joyce won't get hit at ease quite as often in the re-match. That's all the difference he needs to win, I think.

We'll see.

 

Would love to be proved wrong but I can't see a different outcome here as think Joe is too long in the tooth to make the required adjustments to deal with a hard hitting southpaw such as Zhang.

If however he can avoid that left hand a bit more and not take any serous damage in the first 5 rounds then he's the comfortable favourite to take it from there imo as Zhang was visibly tiring before the first bout was called off.

Like I say I hope I'm wrong as I really like Joe. He did well to earn his title shot and didn't need to risk that in such a dangerous fight in the first place - many other boxers would have just sat on their mandatory or certainly not got in the ring with someone who always had a chance to cause him problems. Deserves credit for giving the fans a decent fight this year as the HW division has been dead as ****.

This is where fans are part of the problem imo. We moan about fighters not taking risks but then those who do and get beat get slagged off by many and proclaimed finished just because of one defeat.

Can anyone really see someone like Hrgovic risking his mandatory in a tough fight? I don't and it's hard to blame him really too.

 

Go back to his normal fight weight (he was a stone and half under), get some solid southpaw sparring and he should be ok.

 

A stone and a half is 21 pounds. That would make Joyce 277. He was 271 for Parker, and he has said in interviews that 271 was well above his ideal weight. He was 258 against Dubois and 256 against Jennings. He was around 251 for Thomas and Bacurin. Against Takam, Stiverne, and Ustinov he was between 261 and 265.

The lower weight didn't seem to help with his footwork but it didn't look like he was trying to move much. It will depend on his strategy and if Joyce loses a significant amount of power relative to a drop in body weight. I think he will need some power to keep Zhang off him.

 

Put a stone too at first and then changed it looked weak in the first fight though.