Joe Joyce’s career is looking shaky after his upset ten-round unanimous decision loss to the old warhorse Derek Chisora last Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London.
Joyce’s Downward Spiral Continues
The defeat was Joyce’s third in his last four fights since 2023, and it could mark the end of the road for the 2016 Olympic silver medalist, who turns 39 years old on September 18.
Joyce doesn’t have the youth to build himself back to the top of the division, and his losing to Chisora, a fringe contender at best, suggests that he lacks the talent to climb his way back.
As promoter Frank Warren points out, no one expected this type of fight. Joyce (16-3, 15 KOs) was dropped and out-punched all the way through by the 40-year-old Chisora (35-13, 23 KOs). The scores were 96-94, 96-94 and 97-92.
Although Chisora mostly fought in brief bursts of activity, he wasn’t missing with his shots and landed the cleaner, harder shots. After getting off his shots, Chisora would tire and retreat to the ropes to rest.
Joyce then went on the attack, but his punches were badly missed, going over the head of Chisora, who used his Joe Frazier style of ducking and moving.
Had Joyce thrown uppercuts, as George Foreman did against Frazier, he likely would have found success against Chisora, but he didn’t make the needed adjustments to do that. He also didn’t use his jab often in the fight, which would have helped against Chisora by keeping him busy covering up.
A Fight No One Saw Coming
“There were times when they weren’t missing each other. They were taking serious punishment, both of them,” promoter Frank Warren told BoxNation about Joe Joyce and Derek Chisora’s war last Saturday night at the O2 Arena in London.
“For Derek, I thought the last two rounds are what sealed it for him. He got the knockdown and the way he came back at the end of the tenth when Joe caught up to him,” said Warren.
Chrisora needed the last two rounds because Joyce was coming on in the second half of the fight. Joyce used his better engine and heavy pressure to take advantage of Delboy’s fatigue.
Again, he likely would have won if Joyce had been more accurate with punches, thrown uppercuts, and targeted Chisora’s wide-open body. It’s unclear what kind of corner advice Joyce was being given during the fight, but if they failed to tell him that he needed to make adjustments, he should fire them and find trainers to help him.
“Derek would launch his punches and do quite well. I thought there were a couple of times in the fight that Derek was genuinely going to be stopped,” said Warren.
In the first and eighth rounds, Chisora looked like he was hurt by Joyce, but he escaped because Joyce failed to attack with the right punches. Joyce’s slow movements and hand speed factored into his inability to knock out Chisora.
“After a night like tonight, I don’t want to tell anybody what they should do. It should be their decision. The fighters are the first to know if they should turn it in. Yeah, it is, but we didn’t expect this type of fight,” said Warren when told that Joe Joyce’s going to have a tough time coming back from this loss and getting back to the top.
The Road to Recovery
Joyce must weigh his chances of building himself back up in deciding whether to continue his career. If Joyce does choose to continue, he needs to make these changes:
- Ditch trainer and focus on new team
- Lose 20+ lbs to get down to 250: Joyce cannot fight in the 280s because he’s too slow, which affects his speed and volume of punching.
- Use jabs and uppercuts more. Stop head-hunting and throw body shots,
“He says he wants to fight in the Manchester Arena. We have a contract with him, and we’ll see where we go,” said Warren about Chisora.
