ESPN+ Weights: Joe Joyce Vs. Derek Chisora

Heavyweight Joe Joyce weighed in at a hefty-looking 281.2 lbs at Friday’s weigh-in for his twelve-round main event against veteran Derek Chisora on Saturday, July 27th, at the O2 Arena in London, England.

Wearing a British flag mask, Chisora (34-13, 23 KOs) weighed 256.7 lbs and looked better for this crucial crossroads clash.

Concerns About Joyce’s Weight

It’s unclear why Joyce decided to come in so heavy for this fight because he’d been punished a lot in his last two fights, weighing in the 280s against Kash Ali and Zhilei Zhang.

The fact that Joyce hasn’t figured out that he’s poor at that weight suggests that he lacks the incite to go further with his career and will soon be finished as a fighter.

Joyce-Chisora event will be shown live on ESPN+ this Saturday, July 27, at 3:30 p.m. ET/12:30 p.m. PT.

“Derek can’t take this fight lightly. For both of these guys, it’s a career-defining moment for them,” said promoter Frank Warren to BoxNation about Chisora and Joyce. “One of them is going to have a career, and one of them is not. Both of them do [need to put in an impressive performance]. One thing about them, neither of them fight off the back foot.”

Chisora Downplays the Stakes

During the final press conference, Chisora sounded in denial, saying that a loss wouldn’t be the end of his career. It would be his 14th career defeat if he’s beaten, and it would be up to the British promoters if they want to continue sticking the 40-year-old Chisora in headliners.

If they refuse to place him in main events, the money he makes would drop off next to nothing, and he would surely retire at that point because he’s used to getting a lot of dough for his fights.

“Both of them are walk-forward fighters, so you know you’re going to get a fight,” said Warren. “It won’t go the distance. It’s going to be exciting while it lasts. Joe, for the moment, is still ranked in the top ten.”

It’s unbelievable that Joyce is still ranked in the top 10 by the sanctioning bodies, given that he’s been knocked out in two of his last three fights. With those two knockout losses by Joyce against Zhilei Zhang in 2023, he should be ranked near the bottom at the 15 spot.

If it were up to me, I would rank Joyce in the bottom 50 because he looks absolutely horrible, washed, and nowhere near the top 15, but that’s me. I call them as I see them.

“Yeah, absolutely,” said Warren when asked if he’s still planning to do something with Chisora in the future if he’s victorious on Saturday. “It’s there. It’s one of those situations where it depends on how the fight finishes.

“I’ve got to be honest. At the age, it will be hard for one of them to come back. Everything is on the line for them. I think it will be a stoppage. We’ll find out [who wins]. It’s an intriguing fight. The way they fight, the way they walk forward, they’re going to come to fight,” said Warren.

Both of these fighters are ancient for heavyweights, and it’s a minor miracle that they’re being given a chance to fight in a main event. How in all that’s good is Chisora, 40, and Joyce, 38, being given a main event with the amount of losses they’ve piled up recently?

Chisora: Lost 4 out of the last 6 fights.
Joyce: 2 defeats in the last 3 fights.

“The early rounds are going to be lively,” said Warren.

“The first fight [with Zhang in April 2023], there was an injury to his [Joyce], which is quite ironic because it was a similar injury he reflected on Daniel Dubois, and look at Daniel has come back to,” said Warren.

Joyce was nowhere near competitive in his first fight with Zhang in April 2023, and even if the eye problem hadn’t stopped the fight in the sixth, he was heading towards a knockout loss.

“The one thing about Joe is he doesn’t have a lot of miles on the clock. He’s not had a lot of fights as a pro, but he’s fought at quite a high level. A lot of people thought he could beat the then champions then,” said Warren.

Joyce may not have a lot of miles on his odometer, as Warren points out, but his hand speed has slowed down, and his punch resistance appears to have disappeared entirely. Zhang knocked him out badly in the third round in their rematch in September 2023. In Joyce’s last fight against non-puncher Kash Ali last March, he was hurt by him, and was looked awful.

“We’ll find out. He may be right; he may be wrong. We’ll find out,” said Warren, reacting to being told that Chisora said that Joyce’s two knockout losses to Zhilei Zhang in 2023 took something out of him.