What happened to Joe Joyce yall?

Double Zhanged.

 

Zhang banged

 

I thought Joyce showed a good engine and work rate on Saturday night, same old Joyce defensively but his balance looked the most diminished to me. However, the biggest question should be what was a 40 year old man doing with that rascal of a paper mâché helmet on his head?

 

To be fair, by that point he hadn't fought Parker, Wilder, Kabayel, and of course Joyce, so the level of people he could KD was questionable (though he did hurt Hrgovic, whose chin is also very solid).

 

Equally...
We didn't really know how exactly solid Hrgovic's chin was at that point either - it's only when Zhang destroyed Joyce that it became obvious how decent Hrgovic's chin actually is.

For all we really knew for sure at the time Joyce fought Zhang, Hrgovic had a decent chin and Zhang hit hard but not necessarily anywhere near what we now know he does.


Realistically anyone who can KO Joyce and knock down Parker clearly hits bloody hard - but it's only once we had those known data points that the rest of it all falls into place... Of course now it seems so obvious, it's easy to forget how sure one can reasonably be without the benefit of hindsight.

 

He's aged out. I thought PH would KO him but in effect Joyce was able to stand up to the big shots OK...but he can't land anything.
He's done.

 

people talk about age but really, lads...he was slow as anything yet could do capoeira. had long reach reach and amatuer exepreince, just could not hold a jab out and hold ground.

if anything he took too much punishment, he was exposed too many times before and against true heavies he gets undone.
39 is old...but there are tons of fighters at 35+ who are still liquid smooth and athletic. Joyce just seemed to accept he had to spark guys out and puts all the wieght he can on punches that tired him and left him open.
it's mad, we all knew about 8 fights in his career that he could be serious business if he could be more defencive or create traps. but he never did. his footwork was awful, his jab and positioning was woeful.

he needed different coaching, he needed to be not named the juggernaut if anything.

the warning signs were there. Sirens were screaming that this isnt going to work against everybody. hanks hurt him, thomas rocked him, his debut he was taking punishment, stiverne landed tons of shots on him for a guy who hadnt win a fight in 3 years. its because he is now fighting guys with a competative edge. he was able to old man dubois ETC. but it was inevevitable. he was going to lose boxing matches....and then it happened.

 

Yea... not at heavyweight. There are plenty of 35+ year olds in the division, some even at the top, but only a few are still genuinely athletic. I would go as far and argue that only Usyk and Fury have managed to retain their athleticism.

Joyce never was athletically gifted, and I blame some of it on his trainers, but he did used to have good reflexes. Now those reflexes have been eroded, and his chin has been cracked.

 

Time has beaten him, although I think his Chin is still great, Zhang was simply too strong a Puncher and in the second fight Joyce seemed scared...

 

but even in that. his reflexes are just a normal human beings reactions to a wrapped first towards ones face. he almost feels too musclebound to do anything about anything. at least old george could wrap and clinch up and create good frames and guards. joyce seems to just be really big and was so front footed about his work he could just overwhelm....that is matt skelton tactics

 

Didn't he have elbow surgery after the Parker fight? Never looked as good since that night.