By Victor Kanayo
Chinese boxer, Zhilei Zhang, has called out Ukraine’s Heavyweight World Champion, Oleksandr Usyk, after defeating Britain’s Joe Joyce.
For Joyce, it was his first professional defeat inside London’s Copper Box Arena.
The Chinese had his shorter and lighter opponent in trouble from early on, Joyce providing a static target for Zhang’s booming left hand and providing plenty of work for his corner, as cuts opened up.
Also known as Big Bang, Zhang, heaped dangerous blows on the Briton to the extent that Referee, Howard Foster stopped their fight in the sixth of 12 scheduled rounds, after the ringside doctor had twice inspected Joyce’s puffed up right eye, which was almost closed.
Joyce, 37, was the WBO ‘interim’ champion in the division — a title that effectively made him the WBO’s mandatory challenger for; WBO, IBO, IBF and WBA Champion Usyk.
Britain’s Tyson Fury holds the WBC title.
Zhang and Joyce are both Olympic silver medallists.
While the Chinese is a super-heavyweight at home in Beijing in 2008, the Briton in the same division in caught his teeth at Rio de Janeiro in 2016.
