Heavyweight Joe Joyce (16-2, 15KOs) bounced back from consecutive early defeats in 2023 to Zhilei Zhang (26-2-1, 21KOs) with a 10th-round stoppage of Kash Ali (21-2, 12KOs) in Birmingham.
Joyce toiled for several rounds before finishing the contest strongly. The former Olympic silver medalist upped his workrate and began throwing and landing combinations to enforce his will on Ali. Joyce then scored with a powerful right hook, heavily dropping the Yorkshire-based fighter to the canvas. Despite Ali rising, referee Kevin Parker counted Ali out with only seven seconds of the 10-round fight remaining.
Speaking to talkSport, Joyce reiterated his ambitions to be viewed as one of the best heavyweight fighters in the world, hinting at rematches with Joseph Parker, Zhang and Daniel Dubois in 2024.
“I want to be one of the best heavyweights in the world, and I’m right there again,” Joyce said.
“I’m up for all these big fights. Obviously, there are some rematches [Parker, Zhang and Dubois] and some of those fights need to happen, but I’m coming for all of them.
“We’ll see about any opportunities in Saudi Arabia. Here in the UK and America, the world is my oyster, especially as a heavyweight. I’m really excited to get these big fight nights.”
Joyce is also open to fight in the upcoming 5v5 event between Matchroom Boxing and Queensberry Promotions, set to take place on June 1 as the undercard to the long-awaited light-heavyweight blockbuster between Artur Beterbiev and Dmitri Bivol in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
However, Joyce, now 38, says his goal for the year is to be more active as he begins to rebuild his career following his shattering defeats to Zhang.
“I’m up for getting in again, being more active this year and giving some big, entertaining fights,” said Joyce.