“I went back to the hotel room, and I was like, ‘What really happened?’ I felt like I was winning the fight, and then I watched it back, and I was like, ‘Whoa.’ I think what might have happened, I might have taken a big shot. I couldn’t really see,” said Joyce to talkSPORT Boxing.
Joyce is currently without a promoter and floated Dana White’s Zuffa Boxing as one possible destination. He did not claim that White had contacted him or made an offer.
“Zuffa would be—I’d be open to having a conversation with Dana White. Have a conversation with everyone, see what’s out there.”
Five of Joyce’s last six contests have ended in defeat. The decline began against Zhilei Zhang in April 2023, when repeated left hands damaged his right eye and forced a sixth-round stoppage. Zhang then knocked him out in three rounds in their rematch five months later.
Losses to Filip Hrgovic, Derek Chisora, and Suslenkov followed. The Chisora and Suslenkov defeats were especially revealing. Neither man performed like a top heavyweight. They were simply able to outwork and punish a version of Joyce who no longer resembled the fighter who stopped Joseph Parker in 2022.
His weight has not helped. Joyce was 256 pounds for the first Zhang fight after spending much of his earlier career in the 250s and low 260s. He rose to 281¼ for the rematch, 286½ against Kash Ali, 281¼ for Chisora, and a career-high 289 against Suslenkov.
Joyce was never quick, but carrying nearly 290 pounds has made him look even slower. His punches are painfully slow, his feet are heavier, and opponents have more time to land shots. Only Joyce knows why he has not returned to a lower weight. The way he looks now, he’s puffy and looks nothing like he did when he turned pro in 2017.
Trainer SugarHill Steward supported his decision to stop against Suslenkov after noticing signs of fatigue. Steward believes regular gym work can bring back some of the athletic ability missing from Joyce’s recent performances.
That is difficult to accept after watching his decline over the last three years. Joyce built his career around absorbing punishment and wearing opponents down, but his resistance is no longer reliable. Forgetting how the Suslenkov fight finished makes another return even more concerning.
Joyce named Daniel Dubois, Joseph Parker, Hrgovic, and Chisora as possible rematch opponents. That is a tough list for someone with one win since September 2022. At 40, with his durability fading and weight continuing to rise, there is little reason to believe he will become the fighter he was before Zhang. If Joyce remains in the 280s, more defeats are likely.
Read the full article here