A after a second consecutive stoppage loss to Zhilei Zhang on Saturday night, it remains unclear what the next move for Joe Joyce will be.
Eddie Hearn has weighed in with some advice to Joyce, particularly avoiding one particular “dangerous” domestic match up.
In an interview with IFL TV, Hearn explained why an all British affair with Anthony Joshua would be a “car crash” for ‘The Juggernaut.’
“Joe Joyce is a great guy and a great fighter. But he’s 38 and he’s taken a huge amount of punishment in sparring and fights. His greatest attribute was his ability to take punishment and walk through it – but he can’t do it anymore.”
“Zhilei Zhang is a good fighter but he’s not an elite heavyweight in my opinion. Joe was a punchbag, he wasn’t in the fight at any moment. It was a horrific knockout, and I don’t think his punch resistance is what it was.”
“That [Joyce vs Joshua] would be dangerous. Joyce should not be boxing. He’s had a great career, he should have been Olympic champion and he’s won the interim heavyweight world title.”
“AJ punches as hard as Zhang with much more speed. That fight is a car crash. Zhang is quite ponderous and slow, and AJ punches as hard and with speed. Joe doesn’t need that fight, let him enjoy his life.”
Despite a change in weight and tactics from Joyce, Zhang managed to dispatch of him in both earlier and more brutal fashion compared to when they met back in April, with a crushing right hook in the third round bringing the contest to a close.
‘Big Bang,’ at 40 years young, looks a sure thing for a world title shot in 2024 against either Tyson Fury or Oleksandr Usyk.