Notebook: Heavyweights Joyce, Zhang ready to trade bombs on April 15
Kell Brook apologizes for cocaine video; famous Hearns painting finds home; Matchroom signs heavyweight hopeful Huni; Quick hits; Show and tell
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Joe Joyce will defend the WBO interim heavyweight title against Zhang Zhilei on April 15 at Copper Box Arena in London, promoter Frank Warren announced on Thursday, finalizing a bout Fight Freaks Unite reported was being contracted late last month.
The fight will headline a BT Sport-televised card in the United Kingdom. While a deal for an American outlet is not complete, is it likely to stream on ESPN+.
The 6-foot-6, 270-pound Joyce (15-0, 14 KOs), 37, of England, who was the 2016 Olympic super heavyweight silver medalist, won the vacant interim belt in his last fight, knocking out former world titlist Joseph Parker in the 11th round of a hellacious fight of the year nominee on Sept. 24 in Manchester, England.
“It is a great fight,” Joyce said of his upcoming bout. “(Zhang) had a tough fight against (Filip) Hrgovic (in a defeat) but I thought he won the fight. Zhang is a big, strong southpaw, who is massive, and he has been to the Olympics and all that. So, he has the experience and I think it will be a great fight.
“He bangs, so I will have to watch out for it. As Hrgovic and I have a similar style, they had a great fight, so when we fight it should be entertaining. It will be carnage in the center of the ring. I think with me and Zhang there will be real heavy punches exchanged and I am sure it will be a good fight.”
Joyce, who is the WBO mandatory challenger for unified titleholder Oleksandr Usyk, will be making his first interim title defense. Usyk is headed for a probable spring undisputed championship fight against Tyson Fury, who is co-promoted by Warren.
“It will be a good preparation for Usyk or Fury, plus I haven't fought a southpaw since I won the Commonwealth title against Lenroy Thomas,” Joyce said.
The 6-6, 275-pound Zhang (24-1-1, 19 KOs), 39, a Chinese southpaw and 2008 Olympic super heavyweight silver medalist, is coming off a tight decision loss to Hrgovic in an IBF final elimination bout on Aug. 20 on the Usyk-Anthony Joshua II undercard in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
“It’s a new chapter in my career,” Zhang said. “I am always up for the challenge and when the opportunity rings the bell. Joe Joyce and I share a lot in common. We both are Olympic silver medalists, both are big punchers, and are nearly the same size. This is going to be an explosive, epic and tremendous fight.”
Joyce is risking his mandatory status for Usyk’s WBO belt but Warren said he has to stay busy since the full title shot is at least two fights away with the winner of Fury-Usyk, assuming it is finalized, first obligated to make a WBA mandatory defense.
“We want to keep big Joe busy while the heavyweight title scene unfolds but there can be no easy touches in a defense of his WBO interim title,” Warren said. “Zhang is anything but an easy touch. He is a formidable powerhouse who can consider himself unlucky not to be still an unbeaten contender following his fight with Filip Hrgovic last year.
“Zhang being a southpaw ticks a significant box for Joe, with Usyk being a left-hander and Tyson carrying the ability to adopt either stance. That is what we want next for Joe and hopefully it will be a huge all-British collision against Tyson.”
Kell Brook apology
Former welterweight titlist Kell Brook, who retired last February after his sixth-round knockout of British countryman Amir Khan in their long-awaited rivalry bout, has been having a hard time adjusting to life after boxing.
Last week, The Sun newspaper in England published a video clip it obtained that showed Brook, who seemed to be quite aware he was being filmed, apparently snorting cocaine off a table in his home and then shadow boxing for the camera.
On Thursday, Brook apologized via a Twitter post.
“I messed up,” Brook wrote. “I hold my hands up & want to apologize to my family, gym, friends & fans. It’s no secret that I struggle with mental health & I’m finding retirement really hard. I’m actively seeking the help I need to get me on the right path. Again I apologize for the hurt I’ve caused.”
Brook (40-3, 28 KOs), 36, boxed from 2004 to 2022 and won the IBF welterweight title by majority decision over Shawn Porter in Carson, California, in 2014. He made three successful defenses before stepping up to middleweight to challenge unified champion Gennadiy Golovkin in 2016. GGG stopped him in the fifth round and Brook returned to welterweight and in his next fight lost the title by 11th-round knockout in a mandatory defense against Errol Spence Jr. in 2017.
Brook suffered a broken orbital bone against Golovkin and then had the one on the other side of his face broken against Spence. Brook’s only other loss was by fourth-round knockout challenging WBO welterweight titlist Terence Crawford in Las Vegas in November 2020. After that defeat, Brook did not fight again until the victory over Khan, who also retired after their fight.
Neiman original Hearns art
Perhaps the most famous action fight of all time is the epic three-round shootout between undisputed middleweight champion Marvelous Marvin Hagler and Thomas Hearns at the famed outdoor arena at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas in 1985. Hagler, of course, famously stopped Hearns to culminate the intensely ferocious fight that included the greatest first round in boxing history. The late legendary artist LeRoy Neiman, who painted countless boxing scenes and was a regular at ringside of big fights for decades, painted separate portraits of Hagler and Hearns and that were used on the official fight poster.
While it is unclear where the original Hagler painting is, art collector Ingo Wegerich purchased the original Hearns painting to add to his tremendous collection of boxing art. He asked me to write a bit about the Hagler-Hearns fight to go along with photos of the Hearns artwork for his website. Take a minute and check out the Hearns painting and what I wrote about the legendary fight here: https://wegerich-fineart.com/en/portfolio/marvin-hagler-vs-thomas-hearns/. Also, check out the amazing Wegerich collection here: https://wegerich-fineart.com/en/artworks/.
Matchroom signs Huni
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn announced that he has signed promising Australian heavyweight Justis Huni to a multi-year deal.
Huni (7-0, 4 KOs), 23, was a standout amateur and claimed a bronze medal at the 2019 World Amateur Championships before moving on to the pro ranks, where he has established himself as one of his country’s best prospects.
“Justis has already become one of the biggest names in Australian boxing and is ranked in the top 15 (of various sanctioning bodies) but now we look forward to boxing him around the world and leading him to a shot at the world heavyweight title,” Hearn said. “The signing also continues to strengthen our Australian roster with more additions expected in the coming months. We look forward to our return to this important market in the first half of 2023.”
Huni joins Matchroom Boxing at a time when the company has begun to put on shows in Australia, which it considers a key market for its broadcast partner DAZN. Huni joins other Australians signed by Matchroom such as women’s bantamweight titlist Ebanie Bridges, heavyweight Demsey McKean, women’s featherweight prospect Skye Nicolson and junior welterweights Liam Paro and Stevie Spark.
“I’m extremely proud to announce I’ve signed with the world’s premier promoter,” Huni said.
Quick hits
Weights from Glendale, Arizona, for the Top Rank on ESPN card Friday (10 p.m. ET): Emanuel Navarrete 129.2 pounds, Liam Wilson 126.3 (for vacant WBO junior lightweight title); Arnold Barboza Jr. 139.2, Jose Pedraza 138.7; Richard Torrez Jr. 222.2, James Bryant 253.4; Andres Cortes 131.2, Luis Melendez 130.6; Nico Ali Walsh 159.8, Eduardo Ayala 160.9; Lindolfo Delgado 142.1, Clarence Booth 142.4; Emiliano Vargas 133.4, Francisco Duque 135.4.
The IBF purse bid for the fight between junior bantamweight titlist Fernando Martinez, of Argentina, and mandatory challenger Jade Bornea, of the Philippines, that was postponed at the request of the camps because they were close to a deal is back on because they have not been able to finalize terms. According to the IBF, the purse bid is rescheduled for Feb. 14. Martinez (15-0, 8 KOs), 31, won the 115-pound title from Jerwin Ancajas by wide decision last February and then beat him again by a similarly wide decision in an immediate rematch in October. Bornea (18-0, 12 KOs), 27, cemented his position with a third-round KO of Mohammed Obbadi last January and maintained it with a seventh-round knockout of Ivan Meneses in August.
The IBF has given the camps of Vincent Astrolabio (18-3, 13 KOs), 25, of the Philippines, and former titlist Emmanuel Rodriguez (21-2, 13 KOs), 30, of Puerto Rico, until Feb. 25 to make a deal for a fight for the organization’s vacant bantamweight title. If they don’t make, a purse bid will be scheduled. After Naoya Inoue recently vacated the undisputed title, all four belts became vacant and Astrolabio and Rodriguez were the two leading available contenders in the IBF rankings.
Shane Mosley Jr. (18-4, 10 KOs), 32, who is the son of Hall of Fame three-division champion Shane Mosley Sr., is slated to face Mario Lozano (33-10, 24 KOs), 35, of Mexico, in a 10-round super middleweight bout on Feb. 18 in his hometown of Pomona, California. The fight is the co-feature on Golden Boy’s DAZN card headlined by the Luis Nery-Azat Hovhannisyan WBC junior featherweight title eliminator. Mosley is coming off a decision win over Gabe Rosado last April. Lozano, who has been idle since August 2019, has dropped two fights in a row to former world titleholders, by knockout to Liam Smith and decision to Patrick Teixeira.
There was some personnel movement this week at Top Rank, where publicist Evan “The Dawg” Korn joined the matchmaking department, where he will assist Hall of Famers Bruce Trampler and Brad “Abdul” Goodman. Korn will still maintain some of his media relations duties but much of the day-to-day PR will be handled by new hire Gabe Rivas, the former Golden Boy Promotions publicist, who has also worked with various other promoters and as a Spanish-language interpreter on DAZN.
Show and tell
When HBO’s landmark series “Boxing After Dark” — which was created by my longtime friend, promoter, Hall of Famer and former HBO Sports senior vice president Lou DiBella — debuted the idea was to feature lesser known fighters in smaller weight divisions in action fights as a second series to the network’s behemoth “Word Championship Boxing.” It was a huge success from the outset, kicking off with an instant classic in the unforgettable first main event at The Forum in Inglewood, California, where the young Marco Antonio Barrera, who would become an all-time great Hall of Famer, retain his junior featherweight world title in an enthralling 12th-round knockout victory over former titlist and 1988 U.S. Olympian Kennedy McKinney. It was a legendary war and is one of my all-time favorite fights.
As the drama was unfolding in the 11th round, I am sure HBO’s Larry Merchant spoke for everybody watching when he blurted out, “I could watch this fight for a week!” Barrera was knocked down in the 11th round but he dropped the huge-hearted McKinney five times, twice in the eighth round, once in the ninth and twice more in the 12th. Opening the broadcast was the undefeated Johnny Tapia, also a future Hall of Famer, retaining his junior bantamweight title by second-round knockout of Giovanni Andrade. The card took place on Feb. 3, 1996 — 27 years ago on Friday. Here is the HBO poster from the fight in my collection. I don’t know if a site poster or program was made for the event. If so, and you have them or know somebody that does who is interested in trading or selling let me know!
Navarrete-Wilson photo: Mikey Williams/Top Rank
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Huni
Hunk is a great signing could be anything