Thread: Zhang is nearly 42.

AJ won’t fight him as it’s too risky.

Fury will avoid Usyk and Zhang and wait for them both to get even older whilst he has a rematch with Francis.

Wilder is surely available?

What is Ruiz doing?

Joyce can fight Dubois and Chisora.

Fury has one foot out of boxing and the other in show biz.

He hasn't even turned 41 yet, he doesn't need anymore years added to him.

He's wbo mandatory now so he'll get a title fight soon ish, maybe it'll be for a vacant belt if usyk doesn't hang around for much longer...maybe it'll be Zhang v hrgovic 2, I doubt there'll be any interesting match ups before his title fight, Ruiz was demanding 10 million to fight wilder.

Zhang was impressive against Joyce because he was faster, countered hard and wobbled the seemingly indestructible Juggernaut. His style would always give Joe problems.

Zhang has modified his training and diet so is better than past performances. I hope he gets a chance to win the title or face better competition before he gets too old.

Zhang is better than Dubois/Parker level. I do think AJ, Fury and Usyk would not enjoy facing him.

It would be interesting if he faced Wilder or Anderson, I think he beats them.

Originally Posted by Master

Zhang was impressive against Joyce because he was faster, countered hard and wobbled the seemingly indestructible Juggernaut. His style would always give Joe problems.

Zhang has modified his training and diet so is better than past performances. I hope he gets a chance to win the title or face better competition before he gets too old.

Zhang is better than Dubois/Parker level. I do think AJ, Fury and Usyk would not enjoy facing him.

It would be interesting if he faced Wilder or Anderson, I think he beats them.

Do we have any links or proof or evidence of this ? Seems difficult to make such major gains at 40 with "Modifying training and diet"
or is it just that "Zhang has always been decent, but nobody in the UK gave a fuck about him because he hadn't bowled over a brit?"

Well... he (Joyce) had beaten a fairly good list of opponents up to that point. So to suddenly dismiss him as a total bum seems a bit "hindsight-ish."

(Not to mention "Monday morning quarterback-ish."

How about "Joe Joyce's style is tailor-made for Zhang... and Zhang would spark him 100 times out of 100 any day of the week and twice on Sundays"?

Would that work?

Originally Posted by TitoFan

Well... he (Joyce) had beaten a fairly good list of opponents up to that point. So to suddenly dismiss him as a total bum seems a bit "hindsight-ish."

(Not to mention "Monday morning quarterback-ish."

How about "Joe Joyce's style is tailor-made for Zhang... and Zhang would spark him 100 times out of 100 any day of the week and twice on Sundays"?

Would that work?

I’m not sure if this is directed at me, but I don’t think Joyce is a bum. I just think he takes too much punches and it’s in his best interests to finish.
I don’t want to be cruel , but I don’t think that he has the intelligence to change that .
His strength and biggest asset , which is the capacity to absorb punches has been exposed and at his age it’s only gonna get worse.
If anybody can tell me that when Joyce gets too about 55-60 that they don’t feel he will be brain damaged or have dementia then I might take a different view.

This isn't directed at anyone in particular, but the thing with Joyce is that lots of people have been waiting for him to come a cropper. He's slow, he's this, he's that. All true to be fair but fuck me he's been successful given how shit he is. Now his bubbles been burst, all those same idiots have found their voice again after Joyce had shut them up for a while with a string of wins. Normal service has resumed and he's a useless slow bum, and the dullards have their proof!!

It may be that the game is up for Joyce. There's a massive chink in what once was bomb proof armour, leaving him not a lot else to trade with.

i forgot to say in my last post , before the Zhang fights , I was starting to see Joyce as a serious Contender in the division and had posted as much on here.
but it was disturbing me , because I felt that the way he kept taking punches until his opoent had punched themselves to a standstill and kept coming forward was enough in this quality lacking division to put him up there.
Boxing first and foremost is a sport , a sweet science, the art of hit and not get hit .
I genuiely believe he needs to be saved from himself. maybe when a fighter is KO'd there should be some mandatory brain scans to see if there is damage .
I've already seen him be interviewed and he has every intention of carrying on . Rolling out cliches like "I've felt more tired after a heavy sparring session" yeah , but hopefully in sparring you ain't fucking knocked out like that too often !
i think the truth of the matter is that , not just in this case , the sport buries it's head in the sand and plays at being safe but in reality , they just want to make money. I mean look at the way the Conor Benn situation has been handled.
i think it's getting a bit sad really.

Yeh It's no secret the flaws with Joyce were as clear as day. But he deserved the rise and I cannot begin to slight a guy who ran up the scalps he did in a minimum of 15 pro starts. He fully merited his spot. I think it comes down to collective cracks. His glaring strengths cracked. And honestly his telephone pole jab was taken away. Show me a current "top" heavy who is not flawed. Though some today just hide it better than others by apparently not fighting at all . Zhang is the definition of a skilled big man who maximized his biggest moment(s) to the fullest while possibly realizing this is likely his rise-peak and crest all in one run. He may be 40 but his present momentum is real. The sad thing is I don't think anyone wants to mess with him...bit like an uninvited guest in what has become the shrine of glorified overpaid fuckery that is the heavyweight division. Maybe a rematch with Hrgovic but Hrgovic sounds determined to take his mandatory with Usyk. But I thought Zhang edged that fight. And what has Hrgovic down since? Anyone see his last out? That was dreadful. Wilder, Ruiz, Aj and Fury are all waiting for Christmas and the perfect guaranteed lotto scenario to fall into their laps, and it very much feels like they are done "building" or competing to anything major imo. Wilder and Ruiz were ordered into an elimination for a shot and blew it off. And so did the wbc. They'll peek around the corner and wait for the oddball recently unknown and unheralded party crasher...and real live career threat...to fade out and leave the house. It may last 1,2 fights or it may last 1,2 more years but for me it's Zhang I want to see again.

There has to be some way to monetize Zhang, China has 1.5 billion people. A title shot should excite them. Some savvy promotion should be able to make him and his opponent generationally wealthy