Joe Joyce tells Sky Sports he aims to fight Oleksandr Usyk next after his heavyweight rematch vs Zhilei Zhang on September 23 at Wembley Arena; Zhang upset Joyce when he stopped the Londoner in April and claimed the WBO Interim strap, after which Joyce triggered a rematch
Joe Joyce says Oleksandr Usyk is next, after he “gets the title back” in his rematch vs Zhilei Zhang on Saturday at Wembley Arena.
Zhang shattered Joyce’s unbeaten record with a sixth-round stoppage in April, and will have his own eyes on a pursuit of Tyson Fury were he to win again, which appeared the plan before Joyce triggered an immediate rematch.
If Joyce can beat Zhang, he will win back the WBO Interim strap and more significantly position himself as the mandatory challenger for the WBO championship Usyk holds.
“I’m hopeful, once I get the title back, that it will be Usyk next,” Joyce told Sky Sports on Thursday.
“But the way heavyweight boxing is right now, I’m not 100 per cent sure.
“Definitely getting the title back will put me in good stead, and it then becomes a more likely scenario to fight Usyk.”
Joyce’s defeat to Zhang and the way in which he was halted was a shock, with the Briton having looked so formidable previously in his career.
The Chinese veteran, an Olympic silver medallist like Joyce, used his size, power and sharp southpaw punching to handle the Londoner in some style, inflicting an eye injury that ultimately proved decisive.
Joyce, when asked how he has handled defeat, admits it was tough at first, but is now in a superior place confidence-wise.
“It was tough at the beginning [to get over first pro defeat],” Joyce adds. “But once I got back into camp in Las Vegas, and got switched on and focussed on what I’m doing, it’s given me and filled me with confidence.
“I’ve been correcting the mistakes from the previous camp, and from week-to-week as I’ve improved, and had more practice with the southpaw stance, it’s made me a lot more confident.
“With a loss you learn stuff, and it exposes weaknesses that you had.
“I want to win and keep winning. I prefer that feeling, and I need to get that title back, so there’s a lot more on the line.
“So I’ve made sure I’ve done everything in my power to get the best out of my camp and in my performance.”
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