Joyce vs Zhang LIVE!
Joe Joyce saw his heavyweight ambitions suffer a colossal blow with a surprise defeat by Zhilei Zhang in London. ‘The Juggernaut’ lost his undefeated record as a professional and the WBO interim title after a stunning upset at the Copper Box Arena, dealing an enormous setback to hopes of securing a huge showdown with the likes of Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk or Anthony Joshua.
Joyce looked out of sorts from the off against his fellow Olympic silver medalist, the towering Chinese southpaw weighing almost 20 stone, and received plenty of early damage before being badly wobbled in the second round. Though he survived that onslaught and tried to up the tempo, his badly damaged right eye was swollen shut and he could not avoid Zhang’s huge punches before the fight was stopped by referee Howard Foster in the sixth following two assessments by the ringside doctor.
Mikaela Mayer set up a potential clash with Katie Taylor after dominating spirited late replacement opponent Lucy Wildheart in the co-main event on Saturday night. Exciting heavyweight prospect Moses Itauma was taken the distance by Kostiantyn Dovbyshchenko, while Sam Noakes stopped Karthik Sathish Kumar early and Denzel Bentley retained his British middleweight title with a ruthless 45-second stoppage of Kieran Smith. Follow Joyce vs Zhang reaction live below!
