Joe Joyce has received plaudits for the way he handled his devastating first professional loss to Zhilei Zhang on Saturday.
Joyce saw his world title ambitions derailed, after a crushing sixth round stoppage defeat to Zhang at the Copper Box Arena.
‘The Juggernaut’ was pulled out of the fight by referee Howard Foster, who had consulted with the ringside doctor on multiple occasions, with Joyce’s right eye shut as a result of a series of accurate blows from the Chinese visitor.
The 37-year-old was interviewed by talkSPORT’s Gareth A Davies immediately after and gave no excuses for defeat.
“Just getting hit by that left hand over and over.
“I couldn’t get away from it.
“He’s quick. He’s strong and powerful and experienced.
“Credit to him and his team for getting the win. Sometimes when you take risks sometimes it doesn’t go your way, so I’m just disappointed, but I’ll be back.
“It’s not the end of my journey.”
The Putney man went to a London hospital for a routine check-up and proboxing-fans.com understand that the checks went well.
Joyce had been calling for world title shots against WBC champion, Tyson Fury and unified WBA ‘super’, WBO and IBF titlist, Oleksandr Usyk in the build-up, and could activate his contractual option to rematch Zhang again, who ripped away his WBO interim heavyweight title and number one spot.
The 2016 Olympic silver medalist was joined in the interview by his mum Marvel, who was visibly devastated by her son’s crushing loss, before apologising to his fans.
‘The Juggernaut’ jokingly suggested he may have suffered ‘karma’ referring back to when he handed Daniel Dubois a similar injury during their November 2020 fight and received wide praise for his post-fight conduct.
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One comment said: “You gotta admit this guy is a gentleman and very humble in defeat.
“Made no excuses at all, accepted defeat. Fighters win and lose its part of the fight game man but it’s how they take the loss… and Joe took it like like a man… big respect.”
Another said: “This is probably the most humble and likeable post loss interview I’ve ever seen. And I say that as an Evander Holyfield fan.
“I respect that Joe took such a risky bout against a dangerous fighter, and that he’s not even tried to make excuses. Good guy.”
Another fan replied: “No excuses, no made-up reasons for the loss. When asked he went straight in with ‘I couldn’t get away from the left hand’ which is the story of the fight.
“Most boxers want to ridicule their opponents even in defeat but none of that here just humility and respect for his opponent.
“He even calmly shut his mum down, he won’t allow excuses. Even more respect for him than I already had for him.
“Like him so much more. He’s a true fighter and he’ll be back stronger and better.”
