It was shocking to see Joe Joyce succumb to a sixth-round stoppage defeat at the hands of Zhilei Zhang at the Copper Box Arena on Saturday night. The bout was stopped by referee Howard Foster, who had consulted with the ringside doctor on two occasions in that fateful session.
More shocking than anything, though, was the manner of the loss.
The Juggernaut didn't run out of gas. The Juggernaut didn't crash and burn. No, The Juggernaut drove down a one-way street in the wrong direction and crashed into countless on-coming left hands.
When the opening bell rang, Zhang found Joyce almost immediately with the left. Not only that, the Chinese goliath whipped in the right hook off it, something that a southpaw would normally hold back on until they established both their timing and distance.
At first, one wasn't overly concerned for Joyce. The Olympic silver medallist is renowned for absorbing flush blows and when you're as big as he is, it can be an arduous process to get out of the way. In fact, during fight week, Joyce seemed to have accepted his role as a catcher. "Everyone has a plan until they punch me in the face and nothing happens," said the Englishman to a throng of amused British media.
MORE: Zhang batters Joyce to sixth-round stoppage in London
This proved to be a fatal outlook.
When a fighter sees a punch coming, they can brace for impact. Remember the video that went viral of Canelo nailing Gennadiy Golovkin in their first fight? This enormous overhand right travelled wide, crashed against GGG's chin… and nothing happened. Golovkin is one tough fella, we all know that, but he also saw Canelo's punch coming.
Conversely, Zhang's well-timed blows were felt and not seen. Those straight left hands busted up Joyce's right eye, drew blood from his nose, and shook him to his boots. The crowd quickly sensed the danger and shrieked every time the visitor scored, which was often.
Zhang with a massive shot in the second round 🫢#FightNight | #JoyceZhang | 📺 BT Sport 1 pic.twitter.com/nuz7Y6DJZW
— Boxing on BT Sport 🥊 (@BTSportBoxing) April 15, 2023
As early as Round 2, the action was becoming disconcerting to watch. Joyce rarely came off the centre line, and the path for Zhang's left hand was wide open. Being in the opposite stance, the Chinese fighter's straight left comes down the same path as an orthodox left jab. The difference is, it's not a jab, it's a power shot, and it had 278 pounds behind it.
When Joyce's ordeal was over, he was all class during his post-fight interview. However, after praising his opponent's performance, there was one worrying soundbite.
"I couldn't get out of the way of the left hand. I hadn't fought a southpaw in so long," Joyce told BT Sport in the UK.
Now, if you have a psyche about southpaws, then you should be putting in a couple of hundred rounds of sparring against as many pesky lefties as you can find. Last night, it literally looked like Joyce had no idea how to deal with a southpaw. And it's not like Zhang was a heavyweight version of Pernell Whitaker in there. He wasn't moving around or changing the angles very often. He was just allowed to punch freely.
I've been a huge advocate of Joyce. I think the Londoner is a wonderful ambassador for the sport and he's a charming personality. He's also a terrific fighter with a lot of guts. However, major changes are required in relation to strategies against southpaws, which is down to Joyce's esteemed coach Ismael Salas.
Salas has forgotten more about boxing than I'll ever know, but let's get The Juggernaut moving to his left in order to take away the left hand coming at him. Let's get him moving his head side-to-side, bending at the waist, or bending at the knees; standing straight up with a big sign saying, 'HIT ME!' is certainly not the answer if Team Juggernaut is considering a Zhang rematch.
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If Joyce wants a blueprint on how to conquer the southpaw jinx, he should check out the late Diego Corrales vs. Joel Casamayor 1 and 2. In their first fight, which took place on the Evander Holyfield vs. James Toney undercard in 2003, southpaw Casamayor decked Corrales twice with left hands and drove his mouthpiece through his upper lip before scoring a sixth-round stoppage. 'Chico' appeared completely bewildered by the lefty puzzle.
However, for the rematch, which took place five months later, Corrales hired Joe Goossen (who had coached Casamayor for the first encounter) and boxed much more effectively en route to a 12-round split decision win. When asked what he did differently for the return fight, Corrales said: "We had excellent head movement, used our jab a lot, stayed off-centre, and, for the most part, didn't lose our focus at any time in the fight."
Are you listening, Joe?