Big Joe should never have taken such a big risk fighting Big Bang in the first place. Opting to face a 20st skilled southpaw who can punch holes in castle walls when you're already in the mandatory position and guaranteed a title shot. What was his team thinking?
After his performance against Parker I don't blame them. Zhang was very unlucky in his last fight also, which was probably a factor on taking the fight.
Rooting for Zhang to pull it off again, but this is a winnable fight for Joyce. Got a bad feeling if it gets to the cards it'll land in his favor, whether that's right or not. Also feel like his eye will have to be hanging out of his head before it gets waved off this time. All that being said, I still feel like Zhang will be able to win, and by a full blown KO this time. I actually think the first fight could've been going in that direction. Some folks have said Zhang seemed to be gassing, but to me it seemed like he was just being more conservative with what he threw as a strategic thing, not because he got to where he had to. It's true his gas tank isn't the best, but it definitely isn't as bad as some would lead you to believe. In the Hrgovic fight he was reasonably active for about 8 of those rounds, with one of them (6, I believe) being one where he threw everything he had at Hrgovic trying to knock him out. In retrospect it probably would've been better if he saved some of that energy for the later rounds where he had absolutely nothing left in the tank. But you know what they say about hindsight. So yeah, there's my two cents. I believe Zhang will win, but Joe is being underestimated the same way Zhang was before the first fight. Won't be surprised at either result but I know what I'm hoping for. I'm prolly the only one hoping for this, but now that the prospect of an Usyk-Zhang fight is within reach I don't want it snatched away. Gimme my dream fight only I wanna see, damn it
Good analysis. Team Joyce is thinking that they just need to ensure their man hears the final bell, and most likely he will win on points. Until that final bell, he doesn't need to do anything too drastically different than the first fight except: be a little (not a lot) more active in the first 3 rounds, while being slightly more defensively sound, and then capitalize on Zhang's punch output decrease (1st fight Zhang conserved too much in rounds 5 and 6). Joyce was 'taking over' by the fifth round, if only by punch output. No one was seeing a Joyce KO of Zhang by any stretch of the imagination, but he was out-pointing Zhang. One thing that no one is talking about is Zhang's ability to close a fight when he has his opponent hurt. He is not good in this department. He buzzed Hrgo many times and showed poor or clumsy skills in finishing him off. Same with Joyce last time, Zhang buzzed him good in the 2nd round and seemed almost confused as to how to finish him. So I do believe Zhang will buzz Joyce again, and maybe several times, but Joyce can survive it as Zhang is not a good finisher. So in conclusion, I've got Joyce (big surprise even for me) by UD, although he will take damage regardless, and this assumes the damage isn't so severe as last time. My confidence in this outcome? Medium. Which means this will be Must See Boxing.
Was there for the first fight, can't really see Joe coming off any better this rime. His alleged impregnable punch resistance was completely destroyed. Zhang hits hard.
Joyce looked like he had never seen a southpaw never mind trained to fight one. I'd be interested to know if they struggled to get southpaw fighters in for the previous camps sparring. Or was it just poor defence and zhang power. For me it's a 50/50 fight. Joyce comes in the same and its the same result, Joyce comes in and can avoid the right hand jab then maybe we see Joyce round 8 ko.
Rocky II ain't got nothing on this fight. Joyce will try to plod his way back to the top again. Adrian, Adrian. First time he just wanted to go the distance, this time he's coming for the ko. Or vice versa.
I'm going against the grain and backing Joyce. I think weather the early storm better this time and pick up enough rounds in the second half of the fight to take it on points.
Wonder if we might try and see Joyce work behind the jab in this fight simelar to V Dubois. Keep his hand up to block that laser sharp left Zhang was throwing and just make ZZ work for a few rounds early on. Problem is Zhang has faster hands, is a bloody big lump himself and is real accurate and left handed so even if Joyce was a bit more responsible is it enough? He doesn't waste much Zhang but he was taking more punches as the fight went on and while he never look in real trouble it did make me wonder what would have happened in rounds 10 and 11 if we had got that far. Could be end of Joyce as top contender if he looses so he needs a big performance to regenerate some hype. I think Zhang might just be wrong for him stylistically.
You can't drill decades of gap in hand fighting in a few months. Joyce has to find an entry inside (if he actually has an inside game) and smother and work on Zhilei there, hoping that the Chinese gas tank gives out when not able to dictate the pace and term of engagements. That or hope his eyes hold up and he can tire Zhang with his heavy bag impersonation. Curious about what his team comes up with.
Exactly what I was thinking, seems like all the guys that are/were mandatory wanted to fight southpaws to prep for Usyk (Dubois-Lerena, Joyce-Zhang, Hrgovic-McKean), but this was a horrible move. Why didn't they opt for Wallin instead? Wallin can box and move well but is nowhere near as dangerous as Zhang.
