Joe Joyce was seemingly on his way to becoming one of the best heavyweights in the world before an unfortunate run of form.
Winning his first 15 fights as a professional, the heavyweight was seemingly making leaps and bounds in the division.
However, a 2023 meeting with Zhilei Zhang would not have a favorable outcome for ‘The Juggernaut’.
Despite going into the bout as a substantial favorite, an accumulation of damage to his eye would mean that Joyce was declared the loser of the fight.
However, a rematch would end worse for the British fighter, losing via knockout. The following year, Joyce lost out to Derek Chisora who had a career-best performance against him.
This means that as of 2025, Joyce is 1-3 in his last four. However, before his poor run of form, he had a career-best performance.
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Joe Joyce won interim world title with style points in 2022
In 2022, Joyce was 14-0 with all but one win coming by way of knockout when he took on Joseph Parker.
The two were scheduled to fight in September of 2022 for the vacant WBO Interim World Heavyweight title, as Parker had a 30-2 record.
Despite Parker only losing to Anthony Joshua and Dillian Whyte, Joyce would be able to hand the New Zealander his third professional loss.
Joyce was leading for much of the fight, as his damaging blows seemingly began to add up as the fight went on. However, in the 11th round, Joyce had taken too much punishment to continue.
A left hook would find the chin of Parker, which put him down and out.
Although it was a hearty performance from Parker, Joyce had a fantastic performance due to his relentlessness and damaging shots.
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Joseph Parker bounced back from Joe Joyce loss to win interim world title
Despite suffering a brutal knockout at the hands of Joyce, Parker was able to have a career resurgence after the loss.
The New Zealand native would go on a 6-fight win streak following the loss, taking out the likes of Deontay Wilder and Zhang along the way.
His most recent win would see Parker knock out Martin Bakole in a short-notice fight for the Congolese fighter.
The win for Parker against Zhang would see him lift the WBO Interim World Heavyweight title, while the Bakole victory would mean he defended the belt.