‘Juggernaut’ grinds to a halt as Joe Joyce defeated by Dereck Chisora – Archie Sharp loses unbeaten record
BY RICHARD CAWLEY
richard@slpmedia.co.uk
Joe Joyce’s heavyweight career – as a top-level fighter – looks over after a unanimous points defeat to Dereck Chisora at Greenwich’s 02 Arena on Saturday night.
The former Earlsfield ABC star is an example of how quickly fortunes can change in boxing.
Rewind to September 2022 and Joyce had impressively stopped Joseph Parker to win the WBO world interim title.
But since then the Putney-raised puncher has lost three of his last four bouts including back-to-back inside-the-distance losses to China’s Zhilei Zhang.
The Juggernaut – Joyce’s nickname – has ground to a halt. Zero momentum. He turns 39 in September and the encounter with Chisora, felt to be a spirited but washed-up boxer with too many miles and rounds on the clock, was seen by many as win or bust.
Chisora, 40, won by scores of 96-94 (twice) and 97-92. He looked exhausted for so much of a gruelling bout but Joyce – stiff, robotic and painfully easy to hit – was unable to take out his fellow veteran.
Joyce, a silver medallist at the 2016 Rio Olympics, was knocked down in the ninth. Chisora had plenty of success with booming overhand rights and one peach of that punch deposited his opponent to the canvas in the ninth round. Joyce’s record drops to 16-3.
His immediate reaction was not to talk about hanging up his gloves.
“I’ve just got to see what the options are with my team and promoter,” Joyce told Boxing Social. “Then take it from there.
“I’m sure me and Chisora gave people an entertaining night.
“He’s a tough, tough man. I enjoyed it and I’m sure I’ll come again.
“I am disappointed, I thought I beat him. It was quite a close fight. I needed a little bit more to finish him off. Coming back off the ropes he hit me with a good shot – it was a flash knockdown. I needed a little more to push the stoppage but he was hitting me with some good shots on the way in.
“I’ll have to review and see exactly where I went wrong.”
Queensberry Promotions boss Frank Warren put the match-up together.
“I said the loser of the fight would have nowhere to go but I never predicted or thought it would be a fight like that,” he said.
Brixton heavyweight Dillian Whyte was at the fight and told iFL TV he was keen on a third clash with Chisora.
Whyte already holds two wins over Chisora, both of them slugfests. He said: “I’d love to fight donkey (his nickname for Chisora) next. He is a warhorse, not a donkey any more.”
Welling’s Archie Sharp lost his perfect professional record on the same show as he was outpointed by Ryan Garner.
The 29-year-old super-featherweight had been out of the ring for `14 months and was also involved in a sapping affair, not helped by two cuts around his left eye.
Two judges scored it 97-93 to Southampton’s Garner with the other marking it 98-92.
PICTURES: QUEENSBERRY PROMOTIONS