Zhang destroys Joyce with massive right hook for 3rd-round KO
Retains WBO interim heavyweight title to make it 2-0 vs. Brit
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At the final news conference a few days before their rematch, Zhilei Zhang told Joe Joyce that he was there “to end your career.”
While Zhang did not literally end Joyce’s career, he very well may have banished him from the upper echelon of the heavyweight division courtesy of a crushing third-round knockout to retain the WBO interim title on Saturday at OVO Arena Wembley in Joyce’s hometown of London.
It was Zhang’s second knockout win in a row over Joyce and this one was even more dominant than their first encounter on April 15, also in London.
In that bout, the underdog Zhang, battered Joyce’s right eye until it was a swollen purple slit from which Joyce had no vision and forced the referee to stop the bout in the sixth round as Zhang took the interim belt and his position as one of three-belt unified titleholder Oleksandr Usyk’s mandatory challengers.
But as many times as the Chinese southpaw Zhang hit the usually iron-chinned Joyce in that first bout, he never dropped him or really ever came close.
It was a different story in the rematch — which took place because Joyce invoked his contractual right to an immediate sequel — when Zhang ended the fight convincingly by dropping Joyce to the mat face first and he was unable to beat the count.
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