Joe Joyce, Zhang Zhilei To Fight April 15 In London For Joyce’s WBO Interim Heavyweight Title
Zhang Zhilei will get the opportunity to knock off an undefeated heavyweight again in his next fight.
Boxing Scene has learned that the Chinese contender will challenge Joe Joyce for the unbeaten Joyce’s WBO interim championship April 15 at a venue to be announced in London. Joyce-Zhilei will match huge heavyweights who won Olympic silver medals – Zhilei at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing and Joyce at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Zhilei – a 6-foot-6, 277-pound southpaw – is the WBO’s 12th-ranked contender in the heavyweight division.
London’s Joyce (15-0, 14 KOs) is the mandatory challenger for Oleksandr Usyk’s WBO belt, but the undefeated Ukrainian southpaw is expected to fight Tyson Fury next. A bout between Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs), who owns the IBF, IBO, WBA and WBO titles, and England’s Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs), the WBC champion, could determine the first fully unified heavyweight champion of boxing’s four-belt era.
Negotiations among representatives for Fury, 34, and Usyk, 36, are ongoing. A date and a site for their fight have not been finalized.
In the 6-foot-6, 271-pound Joyce’s most recent appearance, the hard-hitting Brit became the first fighter to knock out former WBO champ Joseph Parker. Joyce’s crushing left hook dropped Parker and abruptly ended their 12-rounder during the 11th round September 24 at AO Arena in Manchester, England.
The 37-year-old Joyce won the WBO’s interim championship by beating New Zealand’s Parker (30-3, 21 KOs). Joyce was ahead on all three scorecards entering the 11th round (97-92, 97-94 and 96-94).
The 39-year-old Zhilei (24-1-1, 19 KOs) dropped unbeaten Croatian contender Filip Hrgovic in the first round of his last fight. Hrgovic (15-0, 12 KOs) got off the canvas and won their very competitive 12-round IBF elimination match by unanimous decision August 20 at Jeddah Superdome in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Hrgovic beat Zhilei by scores of 115-112, 115-112 and 114-113. The 12-rounder between Hrgovic and Zhilei, which was part of the Usyk-Anthony Joshua undercard, determined the IBF’s mandatory challenger for another of Usyk’s championships.
