Esteemed boxing trainer Teddy Atlas believes Joe Joyce will still knock out Anthony Joshua despite his devastating loss to Zhilei Zhang on Saturday night. The fight was waved off in the sixth round after Joyce suffered a horror eye injury.
The Chinese puncher was in complete control throughout as he walked his adversary onto several crisp straights which left Joyce’s right eye swollen completely shut. In the second round, the Brit was on unsteady legs as a backhand collided with his head but to his credit recovered well.
Well-placed right hooks opened up The Juggernaut’s guard as Zhang landed down the middle at free will. It was a superb display from the away fighter, who now becomes the WBO mandatory for unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk.
But despite Joyce sustaining the first loss of his professional career, Atlas’ opinion on how a fight with Joshua would play out hasn’t changed. Taking to Twitter, he wrote: “Silver lining in every dark cloud, and for Joyce it might be that this poor performance will now entice Joshua to fight him.
“And if it does, you never know, if Joyce lands a right hand on that at times porcelain chin of Joshua, could be broken dishes.”
This comes after Atlas’ damning comments about the two-time heavyweight champion before his rematch with Usyk last year. “Joe Joyce could wind up fighting the winner of Usyk and Joshua,” he said on his podcast ‘The Fight’.
“I’ll tell you something I think he knocks out Joshua. How does that feel for you Brits? Put that in your pipe and smoke it.”
He added: “I think that Joshua is too good a loser. He’s a classy guy, I’m not saying I want him to be a sore loser – that says the wrong things. I’m just saying that sometimes it looks like Joshua accepts losing a little too freely, like he did against Ruiz the first time in the Garden, almost like a guy who’s made too much money. Sometimes I just feel that it’s not important enough to him anymore.”
Zhang has called out Tyson Fury and Usyk to a fight but will have to honour the rematch clause in his contract with Joyce first. Joyce’s team have confirmed that after being checked over by doctors he has not fractured his eye socket as first suspected, meaning the second fight could happen sooner rather than later.
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