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Joe Joyce is ready for a protracted night time within the ring versus ‘Huge Bang’ Zhang Zhilei.
He’s simply not within the temper for one.
“He seems good and who is aware of, it may go twelve. I don’t plan on doing that, although,” Joyce quipped in the course of the closing pre-fight press convention forward of their interim WBO heavyweight title battle. “It’s a very long time to be within the ring. I plan to get him out of there sooner.”
London’s Joyce (15-0, 14KOs) has solely seen the twelfth spherical as soon as in practically six years as a professional however was pressured to go deep in his two most notable knockouts to this point.
The 2016 Olympic Silver medalist fought on relative even phrases via 9 rounds with countryman Daniel Dubois earlier than incomes a tenth-round knockout of their November 2020 battle of unbeaten heavyweights. In his most up-to-date begin, Joyce, now 37, pulled away within the second half of the battle with former WBO heavyweight titlist Joseph Parker, whom he knocked out within the eleventh spherical of their interim title battle final September 24 in Manchester.
Whereas under no circumstances equivalent to Joyce, China’s Zhilei (24-1-1, 19KOs) boasts the identical bodily imposing presence. The 39-year-old southpaw—who claimed a Silver medal within the 2008 Beijing Olympics—has solely been down as soon as, which got here early in his professional profession. He went twelve laborious rounds with Croatia’s Filip Hrgovic, the perceived boogeyman of the division whom Zhilei dropped within the opening spherical of a questionable break up determination defeat of their August 20 IBF title eliminator in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Joyce hopes to keep away from having to go that route of their ESPN+/BT Sport headliner this Saturday from Copper Field Enviornment in Hackney Wick, East London. Nevertheless, he doesn’t lose sight of the likelihood that he’s pressured to dig deep late within the battle.
“God keen, I get the job accomplished earlier,” vowed Joyce. “I hope it’s not a protracted, grueling battle and I don’t should take ‘Huge Bangs’—or too many huge bangs, anyway.
“It may go a good distance. Zhang seems powerful. Hrgovic’s good and was hitting him with some good pictures and he wasn’t going anyplace.”
Jake Donovan is a senior author for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox
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