Joe Joyce weighed in at 281.2 lbs, and Derek Chisora weighed in at 256.7 lbs on Friday for their 12-round header this Saturday, July 27, at the O2 Arena in London. The event will be shown live on ESPN+ in the US and TNT Sports in the UK.
Joyce’s weight is a concern because he has fought in the 280s in his last two fights against Kash Ali and Zhilei Zhang and has looked slow in both contests. ‘Juggernaut’ Joyce would have been better off at around 250 to pick up some much needed speed.
Promoter Frank Warren sees Saturday’s heavyweight fight between Joyce and warhorse Chisora as an important moment for them. The loser’s career may end, while the winner moves on to bigger and better things.
Both of these guys are getting older, and it’s hard to see the other improve, let alone how good the winner of this tournament is. The 17-year-old Chisora has lost a number of fights recently and might have retired a long time ago if he hadn’t been well paid for his UK fights.
Chisora In A Must-Win Position
If Derek was fighting in the US, he wouldn’t make it on the card, even at the lower end. Very high standards.
Chisora says it won’t be over if he loses to Joyce, but will he still be given headliner gigs after this? I don’t think so. What promoter in the world would want to stick Chisora in the top spot if he gets knocked out of the water by Joyce on Saturday?
Joyce (16-2, 15 KOs) believes he will finish the 40-year-old Chisora (34-13, 23 KOs) when they meet in their 12-round contest at the O2 Arena in London.
“It’s a tough fight. It’s a defining moment for both of them. They’re in a fight where one of them will move on, and the other one won’t be in such a good place,” said promoter Frank Warren on BoxNation about Saturday’s fight between Derek Chisora and Joe Joyce at the O2 Arena.
The Dark Future of Losers
Chisora and Joyce are one of a kind. Joyce, 38, is not as bad as Chisora, but she is very close. He has looked 100% bad in his last three fights since 2023, losing two and looking very slow.
If Joyce wins, he will still have big problems if he is placed at heavyweight because his hand speed has decreased in the last year, and his boxing resistance has disappeared. Zhilei Zhang destroyed Joyce in back-to-back fights in 2023, and even Kash Ali made him look shaky last March.
“He comes to fight. I said a few years ago that he should retire,” Warren said of Chisora. “You want to prove me wrong, we’ll see if you do it. He feels he has a lot of juice in the game, and he feels he has what it takes to beat Joe.”
Chisora describes himself as a “fun guy,” and he really is. However that’s not enough to attract fans when he loses 90% of the time, and it feels like he’s not at all outside the ring.
His chances of beating Joyce are slim to none on Saturday unless The Juggernaut can take a shot without a nose dive, which is very likely. I don’t see it happening, but that’s one interesting thing about the Joyce-Chisora fight. Does Joyce still have a chin?
“Until those two fights with Zhang, he was the guy everyone wanted to avoid,” Warren said of Joyce. “He’s the guy who stopped first, Joe Parker, who came back in a strange way. He got himself back into the game, and Joe will try to do the same.”
The way Zhang mocked Joyce in those two fights in 2023 dispelled any belief fans had and the media challenged him for a world title. Joyce looked washed out in those two fights, and that was confirmed in his last bout against British heavyweight level Kash Ali.
This was a guy any fighter in the division worth his salt would have blown to the moon in a round or two, but Joyce worked before stopping him in the tenth round. He looked bad in that fight. So, Joyce finds himself fighting Chisora in a battle where the fight is on the way. It is the last chance for the two, where the loser will be sent to play and need to make a living in a tent city on the side of the road.
“For both of them, it’s an important fight and it’s a milestone where they’re going to finish. This is where their work is. Will it end up in the top echelon or not? One of them, it will be,” said Warren.
Source link
