Boxing Live: There is a provision in Joe Joyce’s contract that allows him to demand a rematch with Zhilei Zhang right away. But is it really what he should do next?
When Joyce was defeated in six rounds on Saturday night at London’s Copper Box Arena, his eye sustained severe damage.
After the battle, the former GB Olympian was taken to the hospital to have his eye inspected, but no fractures were discovered.
Joyce will find it difficult to accept her loss. He lost his WBO interim belt along with the opportunity to contend for Oleksandr Usyk’s full heavyweight world championship.
It is too soon to predict Joyce’s next move or who he will choose to face, but the Londoner does have a rematch clause and could impose a second battle if he chose to.
‘Stay away from rematch’
Frazer Clarke was both Joyce’s amateur rival and teammate on the GB squad. He tells Joyce not to challenge Zhang in his subsequent bout.
According to Clarke, “I imagine déjà vu would recur all over again. You have some wins and some losses. It’s a bad defeat because it eliminated your temporary position. I wouldn’t go there.”
“I doubt that many individuals in the world would have treated Joe Joyce that way.
“The punching power combined with the southpaw posture was a huge deal. Although I believe [Deontay] Wilder is capable of doing it to him, I believe Joe was helped much by his southpaw posture.
“Don’t get me wrong, Zhang is a good fighter, but I anticipated Joe to hold off till later. When you review [Zhang’s] resume after the loss, you will notice that all of his performances have been very disastrous. Simply said, I don’t recall him having the same level of proficiency with his back hand as he did last night.
“Even so, I anticipated [Joyce] to put in a significant amount of walking through and further glove wear before later coming back strongly. But, he was firing too many times.”
Clarke thinks Joyce needs to temporarily rebuild. I believe he can return, Clarke said. “Don’t dismiss this man.”
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