Zhilei Zhang pulls off massive upset against previously undefeated Joe Joyce

Joe Joyce and Zhilei Zhang are, for the most part, mirror images of each other. They’re massive southpaw heavyweights who hit harder than average, lack speed and aren’t especially good defensively.

The combination is usually good for an entertaining battle, but it turned out not to be so fun Saturday in London for Joyce.

Zhang landed his left hand repeatedly, connecting on 56 percent of his power shots according to CompuBox, almost all of which were to the head. That constant left hand took its toll on Joyce early. His right eye swelled up badly and on the advice of the ringside physician, referee Howard Foster stopped the bout at 1:23 of the sixth round. Joyce was a huge -1100 favorite to win the bout.

It was by far the biggest win of Zhang’s career, who won the interim WBO heavyweight title in raising his record to 25-1-1 with his 20th knockout. Zhang, 39, landed 78 of 140 power shots, an astounding 56 percent, and never allowed Joyce to get into a rhythm.

Joyce was certainly active. After a relatively slow first, he wound up throwing 253 power shots and landing 60, but his defense and lack of head movement did him in.

“I’m a little disappointed with my performance,” said Joyce, the 2016 Olympic super heavyweight silver medalist who suffered his first professional loss in his 16th pro fight. “I couldn’t get out of the way of that [left] hand he kept hitting me with.”

Joyce entered as the mandatory for the WBO title but instead of sitting and waiting, he took the fight with Zhang. While he deserves immense credit for that, it cost him his belt and his mandatory position.

Zhang, who came into the fight off his only career loss, to Filip Hrgovic in August, was clearly intent on putting pressure on Joyce. Joyce is a heavy-handed guy who entered the bout with 14 knockouts in his 15 fights, all of which were wins. He usually fights going downhill.

Zhang, though, made it a fight right away. In addition to repeatedly landing his left, he kept his right jab in Joyce’s face. The result was the most important win of his career. He won a silver medal at super heavyweight in the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, but was beaten by future gold medalist, and eventual unified heavyweight champion, Anthony Joshua in the 2012 Games in London.

“Today belongs to me,” Zhang said. “It also belongs to every Chinese [person] who showed up.”