British promoter Frank Warren has issued a stark warning ahead of tonight’s heavyweight rematch between Joe Joyce and Zhilei Zhang at OVO Arena Wembley in London: the loser will face a long road back to title contention. The bout comes five months after Zhang pulled off an upset with a sixth-round technical knockout over Joyce, stripping him of his WBO interim title. Now, both fighters, who are not getting any younger—Joyce is 38 and Zhang is 40—are looking to secure their championship aspirations.
Warren, who heads Queensberry Promotions and backs Joyce, predicts that the loser of this fight will take at least two years to re-enter the title picture. On the flip side, the winner is expected to immediately vie for the undisputed heavyweight championship against the victor of the Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk bout. However, this assumes that Fury and Usyk can finally agree to a fight, something that has eluded them multiple times. Additionally, Fury is scheduled for a high-profile crossover event against former UFC heavyweight champion Francis Ngannou on October 28 in Saudi Arabia.
Further complicating matters is Usyk’s potential obligation to defend his title against IBF’s top-rated heavyweight contender, Filip Hrgovic. Usyk recently defeated his WBO mandatory, Daniel Dubois, in Poland. “After the unification, you’ve got the IBF and the WBO calling for their respective mandatories. The winner of this will be the WBO mandatory challenger and will get a shot next year,” Warren told SecondsOut.
With so much at stake, Joyce and Zhang are both under immense pressure to win. Joyce, who has requested the rematch, is keenly aware of the mistakes he made in their first encounter. “Joe knows what he did wrong last time. And the big question is, can he correct it?” said Warren. As the fighters prepare to square off, the stakes couldn't be higher, making this rematch one of the most anticipated bouts in recent heavyweight history.
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