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Joe Joyce suffered a damaging defeat against Zhilei Zhang on Saturday
‘Del Boy’ opened the door to face Zhang and claimed he would get the win
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Derek Chisora blasted Joe Joyce after his heavy KO defeat to Zhilei Zhang on Saturday night, claiming his performance was ‘bad and c**p’.
Joyce was stopped by the Chinese fighter in the third round at Wembley Arena after being hit with a powerful right hook, leaving question marks over his career and immediately propelling Zhang to the top of the heavyweight conversation.
It was Joyce’s second consecutive defeat to Zhang, having also been stopped by his rival in their first fight in April after too much damage was done to his eye in round six.
‘The Juggernaut’ has faced multiple calls to retire from boxing at the age of 38 after taking a lot of punishment from Zhang and watching the pace. Chisora couldn’t find any positives when asked for his opinion on his screen.
“The only big difference Joe made was gaining weight, that’s all,” Chisora countered talkSPORT. ‘Everything else was bad and c**p.
Derek Chisora called Joe Joyce’s performance against Zhilei Zhang ‘poor and c**p’
Joyce was stopped by Zhang in the third round and faced calls to quit boxing
‘I kept telling him, double punch, step forward, but he didn’t. You can tell a strong man: look at Zhang’s calves, he is very powerful.”
‘Del Boy’, Zhang himself went on to predict he would beat the Chinese heavyweight, but admitted it wouldn’t be an easy fight.
After iFL TV asked him what he said to Frank Warren after the fight, he added: “I said I want Zhang. We’ll talk about it. We’ll have Eddie Hearn deliver it. I will beat Zhang. It’s going to be a long night, but I will beat Zhang. I like lefties.”
After the fight, which means Zhang retains his place as WBO interim champion and the mandatory challenger for any fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, Joyce hit back at suggestions he could end it.
After the defeat he said: ‘I feel good, I feel okay.
‘It’s not the end of the world. “I can rebuild and come back,” he said. “I’m going to take some time to think and see where I made the mistake.”
However, Matchroom Boxing chief Hearn was among the voices urging him to retire, claiming he could no longer walk through punches.
‘He’s 38? He took a huge amount of punishment in sparring and fighting,” Hearn said in an interview with IFL after Conor Benn’s comeback fight in Florida.
Chisora wants to fight Zhang next and believes he would beat the 40-year-old
Joyce has backtracked on suggestions he could call it a day despite looking well off the pace
‘His biggest asset was his ability to take punches and run through them – he can’t do that anymore.
Asked about a fight between Joyce and Joshua, Hearn said: “No, that would be dangerous. Honestly, he shouldn’t be boxing.
‘He’s had a great career, he should have been an Olympic champion, he won the interim world heavyweight title and I’m sure he’s made a lot of money too.
‘AJ hits just as hard as Zhang, but with much more speed. It’s not the right fight to be fighting, you have to protect these guys. It’s a car crash fighting. A car accident.’