Topic: Boxing Speculation, Odds and Predictions - page 119. (Read 31688 times)

Man, that's really unexpected result how Zhang can win via TKO against Joyce, I think this fight is one of biggest upset in this year.

I read on few articles if many people are mad against Zhang since he hurt Joyce's eyes with an intention and Joyce asking for a rematch because due to his eye injury, he can't fight anymore.

It's quite controversial if someone punch on opponent's eyes, so let's see if there's a further investigation and that's could change the result of this fight, maybe No contest bout?

Yes, everyone consider this as big upset, no one knows that the Chinese will give Joyce all he can handle. And I guess the hype of Joyce is not broken, probably just another boxer in the shadow of Fury and Joshua as far as British boxing is concern.

Of course, slow and plodded Heavyweight fighters will have a hard time in the likes of Usyk and Fury who can box and move and is very technical. All Zhang can offer is his tough chin and a southpaw. But it can be offset by fighters who are really good boxing IQ.

Zhilei Zhang is an Olympic medalist and his name made waves when he turned pro which is unusual for Chinese boxers. But when he continued to face bum after bum, wasting the prime years of his body, I thought he is just another prospect that did not even try to face top-ranked fighters for a chance to become a world champion. Things changed when he gave Filip Hrgovic all he could handle last year in a very close fight. Although I believe Hrgovic just had an off-night performance, it was his first fight since the death of his father. I always believe that Filip is above all these fighters (except Usyk and Fury) for years and his title shot is long overdue, thanks to his promoter Eddie Hearn (the same promoter of former WBA, IBF, and WBO champ Anthony Joshua) who continued giving him nonsense fights probably to stay him away from becoming mandatory to AJ.

So with that previous solid performance by Zhang, I doubt the Juggernaut cherry-picked him. I always have doubts about Joyce, he is too slow. But Joyce did pass with flying colors when he annihilated the arrogant Daniel Dubois and that unexpected stoppage over former champion Joseph Parker. Joyce picking Zhang was like measuring himself about how good he is compared to Filip Hrgovic (IBF mandatory) and his readiness for the possible WBO mandatory against Usyk.   

Still, it was a big upset after Joyce's previous solid wins over Dubois (WBA mandatory) and Parker. As for Zhang, he is heavy-handed with quick hands and a very tough chin but mobile fighters like Usyk and Fury should be able to box him in circles and maybe stop him in the late rounds.

^^ I agree, it was a cherry pick fight for Joyce obviously by this team. But it did bite them in the ass later, as Joyce has no answer to the left and he even admit that he has problems with that in that fight. But he was graceful in defeat, he had to smile at the camera even with his eyes almost closing. For sure big lessons for him and his camp. But he can still go back to the mix, maybe late this year they will pick an easy fight for him.

Zhang on the other hand can go after the big names and see how it goes for him. Yes, biggest paycheck incoming, I'm thinking maybe him and Andy Ruiz will be a good fight.

I may be late replying to this but yeah Zhilei Zhang doesn't look very weak, and surely he was intimidating Joe Joyce even more, I even think Zhilei Zhang is more compose than Joe Joyce, well this is a great opportunity for bettors of Zhilei Zhang because the odds is not with him so congrats to all,


Yup! I have a gut feeling that this is what is about to happen, actually, this is the 1st time seeing a boxer dominantly unifying the Bantamweight Division title belt, and right now his goal is to unify the Super Bantamweight and in doing so he is doing it in a perfect fashion, without a single dent on his record and that is really an impressive and superb feat to do,


I truly believe that Zhilei Zhang would have a chance to beat Joe Joyce but not in a dominating manner, many have said that Zhang is just cherry-picked by Joe Joyce but this Cherry-picked fighter can surely bite, and it really bites Joe Joyce hard enough to make The Juggernaut Joe Joyce record to be break by a Zhilei Zhang watching the fight again, it was a dominating fight by Zhilei Zhang, the 1st round Joe Joyce was already wobbled by Zhilei Zhang brutal and aggressive pursuit,

It was a smart decision for the referee to stop the fight to avoid further damage that can incapacitate or destroy Joyce's career.


Who knows?  We have not seen Zhang fighting these boxers, so the possibility of Zhang winning is there.  Just like how he dominates the fight against Joe Joyce.  So I believe it is better to watch these boxers fight and see the result first.


If a rematch clause is included on the deal, the possibility of a rematch this year is huge.  So we might see Tapales and Akhmadaliev boxing it out again this year. 


Or Tapales is evading Akhmadaliev now  .  I believe it was luck that made Tapales win.  It wasn't convincing after watching the fight several times.

This fight was an IBF mandatory so hopefully, they will give the champion at least a year before imposing another mandatory. The WBA, however, is the one that can possibly issue a mandatory which is probably Akhmadaliev again. Hearn is keen on requesting a mandatory too thru the WBA.

I prefer Tapales to have an easier voluntary defense of his belts and then face Inoue next if the Japanese wins over Fulton. We want the best to face the best and there is nothing more than a unification for the undisputed championship.

Yup! right decision from the ref to make sure that it won't create more damage for him, there's no contest and the fighter and his camps accepts the defeat, it's an upset that bring Joyce career's to fall, I guess it's not the expected outcome but the Chinese fighter manage to throw good conversion bringing the referee to decide to finished the fight in his favor.

Great win for those who love's taking a big risk for the underdog, a nice way to spend the weekends!

We'll likely see about the that in the next few months, but for now, these sanctioning bodies should let the new champion enjoy his status for a while because they already know that in the coming months, he will likely face another boxer that will come to him and try to secure the belts that he got. IBF and WBA seems to have their own boxers lined up for the new champ.

That looks like it, either way, Marlon Tapales will have to defend his belt again this year as we're still on the 1st quarter of 2023. Still a long way to go but Tapales should understand this and be prepared for what the future is giving him because being a champion is not an easy thing because boxer will be aiming him now as he's the one who is holding the belt they wanted.

What can I say, what goes around comes around. Akhmadaliev deserved what he got now because he didn't anticipated Tapales's action in the ring which makes him on the losing side now. I bet he now knows the feeling of chasing an opponent that is already not interested on him as for Tapales's camp, Akhmadaliev is totally a finished chapter.

Correct. Joyce is the closest one to have a chance at winning the title. I mean, he got the complete package so this will hurt him a lot after being defeated in maybe one of the biggest upsets in the boxing industry. I didn't really like who it ended up but it's the doctor's decision so there's not much we can do.

Anyway, I am more intrigued now at how Paul versus Diaz will end up so I am reading this one good article from ESPN.
https://www.espn.ph/boxing/story/_/id/36169840/questions-ahead-jake-paul-vs-nate-diaz-diaz-box-edge-how-good-promotion-be
I like the decision of Jake Paul here. A more authentic fighter is the right definition of it. I am sure Diaz won't give room to make this look like only an entertainment fight but more like a real brawl.
If Jake picks Floyd Mayweather then there's really no challenge in that and fans would just think that fight would be another money making machine, not a real fight.

And so that is a big upset and really change the landscape of the heavyweight division with Zhang winning against the Joyce. It's obvious that Zhang is the better boxer, and maybe Joyce did have a difficult time dealing with Zhang left, as he is a south paw.

Clearly evident on how he target that right eye of Joyce causing it to close and swallow and he can't see.

But I don't think that Zhang can beat the version of Usyk or Fury or even Deontay Wilder. It's that he put his name in this big fights and obviously good money for the Chinese.

What's shameful though is that there is one judge that have Joyce ahead on the scorecard at the time of the stoppage.

And fans are asking that this judge be investigated because it was obvious a biased scoring on his end.


https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/22055294/joe-joyce-defeat-zhilei-zhang-boxing-scorecards-fans-anger/

And with this win, he had the interim belt so most likely he will be mandated to fight the regular champion which is Usyk.

Yeah, saw some images on my social media.



https://www.instagram.com/p/CrErTnvtuJ5/

And it's the right decision by the referee, no contest on the side of Joyce, his eyes is swollen shut and maybe he can't see anymore.

Congrats to those who back up Zhang in this fight as he is clearly the underdog.

So Tapales is then bound for an IBF mandatory later this year or next year. Matchroom and Akhmadaliev are also interested in appealing the WBA to enforce a mandatory knowing the fight was close enough to deserve a rematch. But personally, I hope the WBA will ignore it or at least make an eliminator fight first for Akhmadaliev, and then Tapales should just fight the winner of Inoue-Fulton for the undisputed championship.

How dare Akhmadaliev want a rematch yet he never gave Daniel Roman the rematch he deserved years before. Akhmadaliev is not the one that unified the WBA and IBF belts, it was Daniel Roman who made an effort to start unifying his WBA belts against then-undefeated and IBF champion TJ Doheny. Unluckily Roman lost a very close split decision to the Uzbek.

And we have a shocker, Chinese Heavyweight Zhilei Zhang beats Joe Joyce and TKO him in 6th rounds. It was one of the best peformance of Zhang to this date, as he just dominate the British boxer and really dominate him every round. Joyce was undefeated coming to this fight and the favorite to win and potentially face Usyk. But Zhang derail everything, Joyce has a solid chin, but his eyes can't take that punishment from Zhang's left causing it to close and swallow and the referee has no choice but to stop the fight. Not sure if anyone seen this upset coming.

It is said that there is a rematch clause for this fight, But for sure Zhang might be next in like for Usyk after Daniel Dubois.

I read that there will be a title eliminator fight the IBF belt held by Tapales, it would be,

Luis Nery #3 vs Ra’eese Aleem #4. If they proceed with the fight then the winner will have the first chance to fight Marlon Tapales for his IBF belt. If the two doesn't want to go to title eliminator they will be strip of their rankings.

So Tapales now has one potential opponent in the future, the winner of this fight. It will be tough regardless of the outcome for Tapales, so he better take a rest now and then prepare again maybe late this year or early next year.

Yeah, they don't need to push for it, there will be another time for him to become champion. He just have to take everything right now as to what happen to him. He just lost the fight, and they think it's not fair, then they have to wait for another chance. Let other boxers have a crack at Marlon first and see how it goes. If Marlon can defend the belt then good, Murodjon should fight another one and then if he won then maybe he will have his chances back. If Marlon losses then still a win win for Murodjon as he can fight the boxer that beat Marlon. No need to rush at this point, just take his time agian.

I think that the governing body will just let him off the hook for the meantime and give Marlon Tapales a couple of months before giving him a mandatory defense fight as he just won the fight. It might be too unfair if they will give Tapales an immediate defense fight because he's not yet due for the next 6 months, so that leaves him some time to pick his own opponents instead of fighting a mandatory challenger that the governing body will give.

Yeah, Murodjon should take it as a man and re-try his chances of either take a rematch or find his way back as a contender for the belts, it was being decided that Tapales win the fight and even they will doubt the decision it has been announced so better to take that and move forward and plan his way back for another shot for reclaiming the belts.

There's always another chance if Murodjon will continue fighting if ever that the rematch will not happen right away, he just need to keep pushing to make his way back on top.