September 25, 2023
Source: Boxing Scene
Photo Source: Boxing Scene
Eddie Hearn, promoter for former two-time heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua, believes a potential British showdown with Joe Joyce is practically a dead issue for the future.
Last Saturday night in London, Joyce was brutally knocked out in three rounds by Chinese giant Zhilei Zhang.
The bout was a rematch of their April contest, which saw Joyce get stopped in six rounds due to an injured right eye. In the rematch, Zhang controlled the fight from start to finish and wiped Joyce out with a huge right hand in the third.
Hearn would like to see Joyce, 38-years-old, call it a day after two punishing defeats in back-to-back fashion.
"[A fight between Joshua and Joyce] would be dangerous. Honestly, he shouldn’t be boxing. He’s had a great career, he should’ve been Olympic champion, he won the interim world heavyweight title and I’m sure he’s made a lot of money as well," Hearn explained to IFL TV. "AJ punches as hard as Zhang with much more speed. It’s not the right fight to make, you have to protect these guys. It’s a car crash that fight. A car crash.”
Zhang, 40-years-old, is the WBO's interim-champion - which makes him the mandatory challenger to unified beltholder Oleksandr Usyk. Joshua defeated Zhang in the 2012 Olympic games in London.
At the moment, Hearn is still trying to finalize a deal between Joshua and former WBC champion Deontay Wilder.
However, a fight between Joshua and Zhang is certainly a scenario that interests Hearn. “AJ has always fancied that fight. He beat him in the amateurs, it was a good fight. Of course, [we’d do it in China]. Money talks, we can do it at Wembley," Hearn said.
“We want to make the Wilder fight. I think Zhang is an easier fight, it’s still dangerous, but why not?”
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