Fans and reporters have heaped praise upon Joe Joyce for becoming the first fighter to knock out Joseph Parker in Joyce’s most recent fight.
Zhang Zhilei, Joyce’s opponent Saturday night at Copper Box Arena in London, wasn’t overly impressed with Joyce’s 11th-round knockout September 24 in Manchester, England. The Chinese contender credited Joyce for his performance, but he thinks Parker’s reluctance to engage with Joyce was a significant factor in the outcome of their fight for Joyce’s WBO interim heavyweight title at AO Arena.
“I watched the whole fight,” Zhilei said in an interview posted to Queensberry Promotions’ YouTube channel. “I think Joe Joyce fought a very good fight. Parker didn’t wanna fight. Parker was running around the whole ring. He was getting tired. He was gassed out because he didn’t wanna fight him. He was scared. That’s what happened.”
The 6-foot-6, 280-pound Zhilei (24-1-1, 19 KOs) plans to be much more aggressive against Joyce (15-0, 14 KOs) than Parker was when he faced the 2016 Olympic silver medalist. The powerful southpaw scored a first-round knockdown against Filip Hrgovic in his last bout, but Hrgovic recovered, got back into their fight and narrowly won a 12-round unanimous decision August 20 at Jeddah Superdome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Joyce led Parker on all three scorecards – 97-92, 97-94 and 96-94 – entering the 11th round of their scheduled 12-rounder. A left hook by Joyce dropped Parker and he was unable to get up in time to beat referee Steve Gray’s count.
New Zealand’s Parker (31-3, 21 KOs) had only been beaten on points in 12-round bouts by former IBF/IBO/WBA/WBO champ Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte before Joyce knocked him out. Zhilei respects Joyce’s power, but the 2008 Olympic silver medalist feels like he is the hardest puncher Joyce will have to deal with since the London native turned pro.
“Let’s see if he can take it,” Zhilei said. “Let’s find out in the fight.”
Despite his close loss to Croatia’s Hrgovic (15-0, 12 KOs), Zhilei is a big underdog against Joyce. Most sportsbooks list Joyce as at least a 9-1 favorite versus an opponent who has lost only to Hrgovic, who is the IBF’s number one contender for one of Oleksandr Usyk’s four titles.
Joyce will risk his position as the WBO’s mandatory challenger for Usyk’s WBO belt against Zhilei, the WBO’s 13th-ranked contender.
The 12-round main event between Joyce, 37, and Zhilei, 39, will be televised by BT Sport 1 in the United Kingdom and Ireland (7 p.m. BST) and streamed by ESPN+ 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.