Terry Lane respects Joe Joyce and has enjoyed watching his rise in the heavyweight division.
Zhang Zhilei’s co-manager is convinced, however, that “The Juggernaugt” hasn’t encountered a puncher as powerful as Zhilei in any of his 15 professional fights. Lane expects their 12-round battle to be difficult for the huge Chinese contender, too, but he predicted during a press conference Thursday in London that Zhilei will test Joyce’s renowned chin.
“Zhilei can punch and he’s a southpaw,” Lane said. “And I know that everybody’s talking about the granite chin of Joe Joyce. And I am a Joe Joyce fan as well. I mean, I have been following his career and greatly, greatly respect Joe. But he just hasn’t been in there with a puncher like Zhilei.
“And Zhilei does some things that are a little more nuanced than I think people have appreciated over the years. He got a chance to show it [in] the Hrgovic fight a little bit more. But I don’t think this is going the distance.”
The 6-foot-6, 270-pound Joyce (15-0, 14 KOs) will defend his WBO interim title against Zhilei (24-1-1, 19 KOs) at Copper Box Arena in London. The resilient Joyce became the first fighter to knock out former WBO champ Joseph Parker (31-3, 21 KOs) in his last bout, but Zhilei performed impressively in a close loss to Filip Hrgovic in his most recent appearance as well.
The 6-foot-6, 277-pound Zhilei dropped Hrgovic in the first round, but the unbeaten Croatian contender withstood that adversity and edged Zhilei on all three scorecards August 20 at Jeddah Superdome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
“We won that fight,” Lane said. “Everybody saw it.”
Lane applauded the 37-year-old Joyce for fighting Zhilei, when he could’ve protected his position as the WBO’s mandatory challenger for one of Oleksandr Usyk’s titles against a less dangerous opponent.
“Just like Joe, Zhilei runs towards a challenge,” Lane said. “Neither guy is a spring chicken. There’s not a lot of time to get done what we wanna get done, and that thing is to win a world title. A win over Joe Joyce would put us in the, you know, upper echelon of the heavyweight division. I think we’re already there. I see this guy spar in the gym. I think I know what’s gonna happen.”
Zhilei is 39, but he showed what he is capable of doing versus Hrgovic (15-0, 12 KOs). Joyce is a 9-1 favorite over the 2008 Olympic silver medalist, but Lane is confident Zhilei will pull off an upset.
“I’m so excited for Saturday,” Lane said. “You know, it’s not gonna be boring. You have two big men, two big punchers, taking a huge risk. It’s just gonna be fireworks. You don’t need much of a buildup for this fight. You don’t need a villain. You don’t need a hero. This fight sells itself. And I think there’s only one more thing to say, and that’s let’s get it on.”
Lane’s last comment was a tribute to his late father, Mills Lane. The legendary referee died December 6 at the age of 85.
BT Sport 1 will broadcast Joyce-Zhilei as the main event of a show in the United Kingdom and Ireland (7 p.m. BST). ESPN+ will stream Joyce-Zhilei and part of the undercard in the United States (2 p.m. EDT).
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.