Joyce has fallen off these days sadly but intrigued to see what would have happened if they fought in their primes. Would have been a interesting match-up. Who wins and why? Joe Joyce 2020-2022 or Agit Kabayel now.
I'm going to give it to Joyce, he would have just kept coming forward and throwing heavy shots. Similar to Zhang in round 1 of his fight with Kabayel, except Joyce would do it for the full 12 rounds. Kabayel wouldn't find the space and get to build up momentum for his strategy with Joyces hard shots constantly thumping in.
Hard to say... Joyce was very overhyped during that time, but then Kabayel is now. That said - Joyce's strengths and weaknesses were always obvious, he lacked any kind of defence and he was slow, but he did have a solid chin and a heavy jab. How do those stack up against what we know of Kabayel? Kabayel would want to work the body and wear his man down - Joyce wouldn't be able to try and deflect Kabayel's best work with his chin. Kabayel isn't quite such a black and white figure - we know he's good to the body and his fundamentals look decent enough (albeit not really that tested at high level, where the problems normally start to show). I'm not really sure which way to go on this one - my gut says it could easily go to cards and Kabayel would likely have looked better, but it all depends what flaws Kabayel has that we haven't seen yet.
I agree finding space might have been tricky at times, although Kabayel did well finding that kind of inside space against Zhang and I remember Jennings hurt Joyce in the body when they fought. Kabayel would have to basically fight Joyce's fight in a way to win this and I think he would have enough success to the body to slow Joyce down in the long-run. He is a very dangerous and effective body puncher.
I agree with this. I think Joyce would struggle to deal with the bodywork of Kabayel considering Joyce has been hurt to the body before and his defense was always non-existent. Joyce would be worn down too much before the tide could turn in his favour in the long-run. I think Kabayel beats Joyce but I think Kabayel defo loses to Usyk quite convincingly - as Usyk would run rings around him and avoid any of his dangerous punches. For me Kabayel V Parker is 50/50, and I'd pretty confidently back Dubois to stop Kabayel early but not sure how Dubois would match up against Kabayel's style especially if Dubois can't get Kabayel out early enough and can't deal with his bodywork in the long-run.
Great fight. I'd like to see how Kabayel deals with Joyce's jab because he fired a lot of them with conviction before he got Zhanged. Could see either guy taking it, but Kabayel seems to like them Joyce's size.
Kabayel has not had his magic taken away yet while Joyce has already been deflowered, so going with recency bias I say Kabayel wins.
