Joe Joyce is set to fight Derek Chisora on July 27th in the O2 Arena. The Olympic silver medallist looks to continue to rebuild after those devastating losses to Zhilei Zhang. Since those losses Joyce has beaten Kash Ali back in March with a 10th round KO in Birmingham. This will be Joyce’s first step back into the limelight after the nasty KO he suffered against Zhang in the rematch.
Joe Joyce vs. Derek Chisora Announced
The choice of Derek as an opponent is strange. Although Chisora is well known and well liked by the British boxing fans he really shouldn’t be fighting Joyce. Chisora is in his 40s and is well past his best. His stamina is not what is once was and all the attributes he had have declined. Also Chisora isn’t and never has been a world level fighter he has consistently shown he is at British and European level.
This makes the choice of Chisora even stranger considering Joyce who is 38 should be in a rush to get back up the rankings. And fighting Chisora is not the way to do that he is not highly ranked by any belt organisation. So beating Chisora wouldn’t do much for him. A better option if Joyce was looking for a domestic bout against a world level fighter would be Dillian Whyte.
Even though Whyte isn’t currently that highly ranked due to his absence he is a more proven world level operator. And Whyte is a more high profile name at this point in his career and had more success than Chisora. Whyte is also closer to his prime despite being past his best. So overall a win over Whyte would be more impressive and do more for him than beating Chisora. But alas this is the fight we got.
Joe Joyce if he has anything left should steamroll Chisora. Chisora just isn’t on Joyce’s level physically and technically. A win for Joyce although may reopen some world level doors . This depends on how Joyce wins but likely he gets a devastating KO around the middle rounds. This should be the end for Chisora who should have retired 2 fights ago and he may be forced to with the potential damage Joyce can do.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
