The home fighter was stunned, looking helplessly at his team. He once again came unstuck against the hard-hitting southpaw, site here and looked a shadow of the fighter who knocked out 14 of his first 15 opponents.
From afar, George had cringed at how Zhang was being developed. There was no plan, he says. No visible signs of improvement. The only objective seemed to be to lard Zhang’s record with enough warm bodies until one of the top heavyweights would pay a premium to face him. “Do you remember Nikolai Valuev?” asks George, referencing the 7-foot Russian who briefly held a heavyweight title. “That’s how everyone was looking at Zhilei. Like a gimmick.”
Joyce said, “I’m just disappointed with my performance. The hand kept hitting me, and I couldn’t get out of the way. So, respect to Zhilei Zhang. It was a good fight, but I think I could have done better.
Round 2: Joyce with some jabs, but a 1-2 from Zhang buckles Joyce just a bit about a minute in. Joyce trying to get some control of the tempo. BIG LEFT HURTS JOYCE! Referee Howard Foster gets in there to give Joyce a moment. Zhang cannot miss with the left hand to the head. Joyce trying to come back on him now, backing Zhang down, or trying to anyway. Joyce’s jabs just not discouraging Zhang yet, but he’s working away, and Zhang has had conditioning issues. We’ll see if we get into the second half. Zhang 10-9, 20-18.
Jermell Charlo was the undisputed champion but has been stripped of all four of his titles as he hasn’t competed at 154 pounds since May 2022. That opened the door for Madrimov and Kurbanov to compete in their first title bout.
Tonight, Zhang looked slower than he’d been for his two fights against Joyce, and it seemed to take a lot out of him just to throw a few shots every round. Ideally, Zhang should come into the rematch in the 270s. In addition to losing weight, Zhang needs to work on his cardio because he can’t afford to be gassing out after three slow-paced rounds like he did tonight.
Over a year later, Joyce returned to the ring on 25 July 2020 against Michael Wallisch in a behind-closed-doors bout in Stratford. After knocking Wallisch down three times in the first three rounds, the referee stopped the fight resulting in a third-round technical knockout victory for Joyce.
As well as superior experience, two-weight world champion Vargas had a big height advantage that made it difficult for Ball to land head shots early on. But in the third round he made a good job of it when he leapt into shots just to reach Vargas.
A year later, Zhang faced Hrgović, an undefeated former Olympic bronze medalist from Croatia. Hrgović had never been past the eighth round. Zhang took him 12, dropping a razor-thin decision. “He won,” says George. “You’ll never convince me otherwise.” A few months later Zhang got the call for Joyce. Cutting left hands did the job in the first fight. One thudding right did it in the rematch.
For most of us, the face is a sensitive area, and you may have heard that laser treatments for tattoo removal can be a painful process anyway – so you might expect that the facial tattoo removal process would be even worse.
It is unclear if it will be an official fight or an exhibition bout, like Tyson’s 2020 encounter with Roy Jones Jr. However, what is certain is the encounter, which will be staged in Texas and broadcast live on streaming platform Netflix, is set to make both fighters a lot of money.
A Los Angeles-area mansion that is owned by Reggie Bush was reportedly the target of a break-in on Tuesday night, and the former NFL star was home at the time. Police are investigating an attempted home invasion at a property…
Paul built a significant fan following as a YouTube influencer and turned professional in boxing four years ago. He has won nine of 10 fights with six knockouts against mostly undistinguished opponents. His only loss came last year to Tommy Fury, half-brother of WBC heavyweight champ Tyson Fury.
In August 2005, Etienne robbed a local business, tried to hijack two cars (one containing a woman and her child), then pulled a gun on police officers. He reportedly tried to fire the weapon only for it to jam. After being convicted of armed robbery, kidnapping and the attempted murder of a police officer, Etienne was sentenced to 160 years in prison (later reduced to 105 years due to a technicality).
“He got caught with an extremely good punch,” said Joyce’s promoter, Frank Warren. “Zhang is the mandatory challenger for the WBO title, and mid next year the WBO will order a mandatory against whoever is the WBO champion.”
“This is a massive win for Israil, for Matchroom,” said Madrimov’s promoter, Eddie Hearn. “They talk about he’s a young Gennadiy Golovkin. … Undisputed at 154 is the plan. Terence Crawford, Tim Tszyu. … He’s coming for all the belts in the division.”
Dominating the ring between 1987-1990, Tyson is the youngest ever boxer to win a heavyweight title at 20 years, four months, and 22 days old, but his career has also been controversial. He was convicted of rape in 1992 and served three years behind bars before returning to the ring, winning back several of his titles before his 1997 match against Evander Holyfield pretty much ended his career when Tyson bit off part of Holyfield’s ear.