Classic perspectives on Joyce Zhang

Joe Joyce makes career-comeback Foreman (at least up until the Holyfield fight) look like a speed merchant.

 

Pretty shocking how easily Joyce was hit with those straight left hands. He simply had no answer. I'm just not wild about the heavyweight division these days. Outside Uysk, it's a pretty boring group.

Conversely, I think current lightweight and Jr. Welterweights divisions are absolutely stacked with great fighters and way more interesting than the heavyweight division.

 

Joyce was an exciting to watch B- level slugger with a limited box of tools. Was never truly as good as the general forum bozos and modernists who thought he'd just easily walk through the punches of hall of famers before brutally knocking them out. I'm not surprised he got stopped, but I am surprised by who stopped him and how easily he got dismantled given all the hype. Not quite as shocking as Joshua vs Ruiz, but still a pretty bad loss.

 

Zhang looked great. Fast, accurate, powerful, timing spot on. He just could not miss with those lefts. Joyce's face at the end, yikes.

Zhang might have just earned himself a big money fight against Usyk or Fury.

 

I honestly think Joyce's own hype got to him. Against Dubois he seemed a little less confident in his durability and so elected a stick and move gameplan that ended up working. After beating Dubois and Parker, everybody started hyping up his chin and how unstoppable he was. I think he got overconfident, started believing that he could just Juggernaut his way through anybody, Even a guy like Zhang who was too big to be bullied and was an explosive and dangerous puncher.

 

Joyce needs to learn some effective head movement if he is looking to come back from this. Zhang couldn't miss it seemed.

 

Joyce was fighting a 6-6, 278 pound southpaw. Many heavyweight champions/contenders would not have gotten into the ring with any southpaw, and especially not a huge one with an extensive amateur career. Some fighters can see the left hand from a southpaw, some can not. When a fighter can not, he's in for an unpleasant experience.

I wouldn't hold this loss against Joyce's legacy, and unless this fight has destroyed his confidence it may not mean much at all when he fights a right handed fighter. I give Joyce credit for taking the fight.

 

Don’t think Joyce will bounce back from this…he’s long in the tooth as is despite his short career. Hopefully I’m wrong but he won’t be able to eat shots like that and have a sustainable career. Others rightly pointed out already it’s one thing to have a solid chin that can take a shot when needed it’s another thing to eat shots with no resistance. Against the best that won’t fly…I do like good fighters meeting up so hopefully we get more mix and matches because the top three don’t seem to want to fight anyone worth noting

 

Your point about southpaws is well taken, but Joyce doesn’t have a legacy.

He’s a face fighter who got hit in the face … flush, time and again. And he’s done so before now. The general forum hype was that his chin was concrete and he could walk through anything … and while his chin held up his face did not.

 

Losing to an enormous southpaw with huge power doesn't exactly prove that Joyce would lose to Marciano.

Zhang also seems much better than everyone used to think. I'm not sure what was going on with him in the Forest fight. Too bad he's almost 40.

 

Still think neither of these guys has reached the level of Valuev . and that is not too high of level to reach.

 

Slow

 

Fast? smh not

 

Dayum!

I didn’t know this fight had already gone down.

Zhang was paying $7 + on my betting app - not bad odds for a banger vs an easy to hit opponent.

I was seriously considering putting down $100 - ah, the story of my life. Back to betting on table tennis. Lol.