Joe Joyce will still get ‘big fights’ despite his shock defeat by Zhilei Zhang, claims George Warren
Joe Joyce will still get ‘big fights’ despite his shock defeat to Zhilei Zhang, promoter George Warren has claimed, with the Briton having to reassess possible fights with Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk after his sixth-round loss over the weekend
- Joe Joyce’s promoter has backed the heavyweight to continue to attract big names
- Joyce suffered a sixth-round defeat to Zhilei Zhang on Saturday
- George Warren believes the Englishman can recover from the loss
Joe Joyce will continue to be involved in major heavyweight fights, according to his promoter, despite Saturday’s shock defeat to Chinese boxer Zhilei Zhang.
Joyce was expected to go through the fight on his way to a possible blockbuster bout with Tyson Fury, Anthony Joshua or Oleksandr Usyk, but his ambitions were pushed back after being retired in the sixth round.
The Englishman commented after the fight that he wouldn’t try to activate his immediate rematch clause, but Joyce’s promoter George Warren – son of the mega-promoter Frank – believes his client will still attract major opponents.
“It’s going to be another big fight, but if it’s not that fight, Joe will be in big fights, Zhilei will be in big fights,” said Warren. talkSPORT Breakfast.
“There is so much activity in heavyweight and this is what it’s all about. We want to see fights where you don’t know the outcome and that’s what we got on Saturday.’
Joe Joyce (pictured) will still be involved in major heavyweight fights, according to his promoter
Joyce (left) was restrained by Chinese fighter Zhilei Zhang during Saturday’s showdown
George Warren (pictured) represents Joyce and has supported his client to continue to attract big fights
Warren went on to explain that Joyce will be able to decide when to play the rematch, but advised the 37-year-old to consider all options once he has recovered from his eye injury.
Joyce’s right eye was targeted by Zhang from the first bell and eventually the damage done was too severe for the fight medic to let him continue.
There was a good atmosphere between both fighters and their respective sides at the end of the match and Warren admitted that there is open and positive communication with Zhang’s representatives.
“Zhilei is under contract with Queensberry for the foreseeable future and he has a great group of people we work with for him.
Joyce (right) couldn’t handle Zhang’s (left) powerful left hand for six rounds.
“If Joe wants that rematch, it’s his right to invoke it, it’s not ours. Our relationship with Zhilei will continue, if he doesn’t, he has to make that decision.
‘He can do it right away. He could put up a fight and we could try again later in the year,” he added.
“Right now we need to see how bad that eye is.
“We’ll have to judge it, he’ll have to look at the performance and what went wrong, but that decision about the rematch is up to him,” said Warren.