What happened to Joe Joyce yall?

As a boxing fan, Joyce v Zhang 1 was great match making. But putting him in with one of the few fighters that would really put his chin to the test... it was an interesting gamble

 

Haha, I got a good kick out of that italicized "interesting". But yea, I mean at the time, Joyce was on top of the world beating Parker and Dubois before that. The hype train was not only off to the races, it was off the tracks (that one thread about Joyce basically KOing every heavyweight in the past). So Zhang, a guy who has a horrible gas tank (at least the perception at the time) vs Joyce who has/had an amazing one and an "uncrackable chin" wasn't the worst logic..... definitely not the best though.

 

Did we know Zhang possibly had the heaviest hands ever though?

 

He was a good fighter but always had limitations that would be his down fall. I rated him from the Jennings fight but never thought he'd beat the top guys in the division like AJ or Fury.

He got old and the combination of his lack of defence and the two Zhang fights probably accelerated that age related decline. I think he could been more aggressive against Hrgovic, he didn't throw as many punches as he usually does, even when Hrgovic was just sitting on the ropes in the latter rounds. Maybe that's age or maybe that's due to increased weight, either way his best years are now behind him.

 

He was already past his best when he turned pro.

 

Blocked way too many punches with his face. Surprised he got as far as he did with that style (or lack thereof lol), it certainly speaks to how tough the guy is/was.

 

I can't understand why anyone is surprised about this. It was always clear that he would struggle to take the punches Parker landed from the heavier handed fighters in the division, which are many. Yes, he took the punches from Dubois as well, but if Dubois's eye hadn't cracked Joyce would likely have lost that one.

Of course, age and the punishment he's taken has demanded its tribute, but having that poor defence is never a formula for sustained success. Not anywhere, but certainly not in the HW division.

 

zhang has knocked down every man he’s faced. don’t think it took much detective work to realize how hard he hits.

 

1. Was always somewhat overrated. After Parker he became the "boogeyman" of the heavyweights to many people but he was always a very beatable fighter.

2. Two stoppage losses to Zhang. Losses like that while your in your late 30s will only further deteriorate you.

3. After the first Zhang fight he started coming in consistently too heavy. His weight helped against Parker who was also too heavy for their fight, wasn't strong enough and hard punching enough to keep him away, and wasn't fast enough on his feet to stay away from him.
He was able to walk through his shots, bully him and break him down until he was stopped.

But against bigger hard punching guys like Zhang, Chisora, and Hrgovic that extra weight only made him slower and easier to hit. Zhang beat him cleaner than he did the first time, Chisora was able to avoid much of shots and drop him, and Hrgovic landed almost at will while avoiding his horribly slow and wide shots.

 

To be honest his age and style

 

I do wonder how much the Parker fight took out of him. He walked on to a lot of flush shots that night. The hype around his chin and his dense bones certaianly didn't help as he leaned more towards just walking through every punch. The Brit hype machine was in full effect around Parker and Zhang 1.

 

1. He's old.
2. He's slow
3. He's old and slow

/Thread

 

Yeah, no matter your age you're going to decline quickly if you take that much punishment. And he has, every time he's faced decent opposition. Maybe the first Zhang fight was the most savage. He just kept taking Zhang's best until he was stopped. At least the second one was over more quickly.

 

On the paper you may have thought that Zhang stamina limitations would make him vulnerable to Joyce. We weren't knowing that Zhang was punching so hard

 

That fight was always about whether Joyce would last until Zhang ran out of gas. I didn't find it very surprising that he didn't.