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Juggernaut 2.0 - Joe Joyce and the fight to keep his boxing career alive
MANCHESTER, England - Friday saw the final piece of pre-fight activities come to a close at Co-op Live with Joe Joyce and Filip Hrgovic hitting the scales ahead of their heavyweight clash on Saturday night live on DAZN.
Joyce was considerably heavier at 275.1lbs compared to Hrgovic at 250.6lbs and gave the following message to Queensberry’s Dev Sahni following the mandatory face off.
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“Juggernaut 2.0, here I am, on the scales of muscle, bone and desire to get back to the top of the sport.”
If Joyce is indeed wanting to make an impact as Juggernaut 2.0, then it could not come at a more crucial time in his career where a loss could destroy this new version of the ‘Juggernaut’ before having a chance to get started.
The last chance saloon
There may be no interim title or something along those lines at stake, instead it is the respective careers that will be on the line for Joyce and Hrgovic come Saturday night.
Both men were once tipped to be world title contenders when they were tearing up the heavyweight division, but they now find themselves on the outside looking in on a weight class which is full of exciting talent.
Joyce has lost three of his last four fights, whilst Hrgovic was stopped in eighth round of his clash with Daniel Dubois last June due to cuts, but the Croatian was already absorbing plenty of punishment beforehand.
With this being the last chance saloon for both men, it should be all what’s needed for an exciting main event at Manchester’s Co-op Live according to former two-weight world champion Carl Frampton.
“The main fight, Hrgovic and Big Joe, it’s last chance saloon for both of them,” Frampton told DAZN News in an exclusive interview.
“Joe has lost three of his last four fights, Hrgovic lost his last one as well. At the ages both guys are at, a defeat is probably the end of the road which makes it very appealing and interesting.
“I’m sure both guys will understand this and I have no doubt that they will put everything they have into their camps and on fight night perform to the best of their ability.”
The decline of Joyce
At one time Joyce was considered be superhero-like for his granite chin and ability to just keep coming forward when hunting down his opponents.
But unlike superheroes, Joyce could not keep using his powers to keep him out of trouble and was broken by Zhilei ‘Big Bang’ Zhang, and then Derek Chisora last July.
When the first fight with Zhang was made for April 2023, it felt like Joyce could not be stopped. He dealt a brutal knockout loss to former world heavyweight champion Joseph Parker seven months earlier and some felt that Zhang, who is known for his hard-hitting style, was likely to suffer the same fate.
How wrong that assumption was. Zhang was not afraid to let his hands go with his punches frequently bouncing off Joyce’s head. While it was something to behold, there was a concern as to how long Joyce’s resistance would hold. The damage was there to see, particularly under Joyce’s left eye which closed up and after being consulted by the ringside doctor halfway through round six, Joyce’s battle with Zhang was brought to a halt.
After sustaining such serious damage, you would assume that Joyce would take time to get back to his best before attempting revenge against Zhang.
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Instead, he went straight for ‘Big Bang’ with the rematch scheduled for the following September and the ending was more brutal. Making the same mistakes as the first encounter, Joyce kept walking on to Zhang’s shots and in the third, the latter landed the decisive blow, a thumping right hand in the closing seconds to finish off the 'Juggernaut'.
To see two lacklustre Joyce performances in the space of six months, it was clear to find the major flaw, the overreliance on his chin, a sentiment echoed by Frampton when dissecting this rough patch in Joyce’s career.
“I think because of Joe’s style, he relied on his chin a lot,” Frampton told DAZN News.
“That’s the same case in sparring, he doesn’t move his head a lot, defensively he’s not a brilliant fighter, but his toughness, his resilience and his fitness got him through a lot of fights. He’s a lot fitter than the vast majority of heavyweights.
“The punch resistance literally gets punched out of you, and if you’re getting clean too often, it slowly dwindles down the more and more you get hit.
“I’m hoping that it’s not completely gone, but it’s something he heavily relies on.”
The word ‘Juggernaut’ is currently one which only applies as a reference to Joyce in articles, broadcasts and social media, it is now down to Joyce to keep that nickname alive inside the ring in some style on Saturday night rather than let it vanish from boxing altogether.
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