{"id":289565,"date":"2023-09-22T08:34:32","date_gmt":"2023-09-22T08:34:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?p=289565"},"modified":"2023-09-22T08:34:32","modified_gmt":"2023-09-22T08:34:32","slug":"exclusive-joyce-on-weight-loss-sparring-southpaws-tactical-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/exclusive-joyce-on-weight-loss-sparring-southpaws-tactical-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Joyce on weight-loss, sparring southpaws &amp; tactical changes"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>EXCLUSIVE: Joe Joyce opens up on his drastic weight-loss for his first fight with Zhilei Zhang, how his defeat will actually OPEN the door to other top heavyweights and the tactical changes he&#8217;s made ahead of his rematch this weekend<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Joe Joyce will go toe-to-toe with\u00a0Zhilei Zhang for a second time this weekend\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Joyce weighed in at 256lbs in April, while the Southpaw weighed in at 278lbs\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Joyce has been sparring more southpaws and plans to make &#8216;small&#8217; changes\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Joe Joyce\u00a0reveals why he weighed in so light for his first fight with\u00a0Zhilei Zhang and opened up on the tactical changes he will be making for their rematch this weekend.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The 38-year-old British heavyweight dropped a drastic amount of weight ahead his first fight with Zhang in April &#8211;\u00a0tipping the scales over a stone lighter than in his previous bout.<\/p>\n<p>Joyce, a 2016 Olympic silver medalist, weighed in at 256lbs for his heavyweight clash with the Chinese southpaw, while Zhang tipped the scales at 278lbs for the bout.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Joyce, who was visibly leaner as he took to the scales at the weigh-in, came in 15lbs lighter then his fight with Joseph Parker &#8211; then tipping the scales at 271.6lbs, six pounds heavier than his fight against Christian Hammer before that.<\/p>\n<p>The Juggernaut was not planning to weigh-in so light and explained how he went into camp &#8216;at fight weight&#8217; and struggled to consume food after long and grueling sessions.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/22\/08\/69833055-12548285-Joe_Joyce_left_has_dropped_over_a_stone_for_Saturday_s_clash_aga-a-2_1695367317517.jpg\" height=\"438\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Joe Joyce (left) reveals why he weighed in so light for his first fight with Zhilei Zhang (right)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/22\/08\/69833185-12548285-Joyce_puts_his_WBO_Interim_World_Heavyweight_title_on_the_line_a-a-1_1695367315432.jpg\" height=\"429\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Joyce dropped over a stone for his first fight with the Chinese heavyweight in April<\/p>\n<p>Joyce says his weight wouldn&#8217;t have been a talking point if he had beaten Zhang, but insists he is looking to come in heavier for their rematch this weekend.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Speaking exclusively to Mail Sport, Joyce said:\u00a0\u00a0&#8216;No there wasn&#8217;t [a reason behind coming in much lighter than his previous fight]. I had a pre-camp before Christmas which was a three week training camp. That went well and then over Christmas, I wasn&#8217;t eating badly and I was being active so when I went into camp I was already at fight weight.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Then obviously with the training I did, I just stripped more weight off. It was quite hard to eat as well given how late my sessions were ending. It was hard to keep the weight up.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Normally Salas wants my weight lower but for Zhang, who is a big heavyweight, it was probably too low. I don&#8217;t know, if I had won the fight and had good footwork and head movement and beat him, people wouldn&#8217;t be criticising my weight.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;They would be saying &#8216;ah that&#8217;s why he was able to move around like that or whatever&#8217;. But, it didn&#8217;t really pan out that way.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;People were looking for problems or reasons for why I lost. They were pinning it on one thing. But, before the fight, everyone was saying I have this unbelievable chin and that I can&#8217;t be knocked out. It didn&#8217;t really help me &#8211; I got my eye bashed up instead.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>However, Joyce felt his weight would have given him the advantage over Zhang in the later rounds if his eye wasn&#8217;t bashed up. He said the Chinese heavyweight was &#8216;starting to slow down and take backwards steps&#8217;.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He told Mail Sport:\u00a0&#8216;There was an AI scoring system which someone showed me and it revealed how many punches were being thrown and how many punches were landing.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/22\/08\/75718709-12548285-image-a-5_1695367674002.jpg\" height=\"430\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Joyce doesn&#8217;t regret fighting Zhang despite losing his WBO Interim World Heavyweight title<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/09\/22\/08\/75718707-12548285-image-a-4_1695367673362.jpg\" height=\"398\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Joyce (pictured with Frank Warren) will be looking to get revenge against Zhang this weekend<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It showed that I was landing over 100 punches a round or something. As the rounds continued and it went in the later rounds, I&#8217;d have out pointed him with the amount of shots I threw and the punches I landed if I didn&#8217;t knock him out.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;If it wasn&#8217;t for the eye and I had of carried on, I would have got in there and probably beaten him later on. He was starting to slow down and take backwards steps.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless,\u00a0Joyce believes his loss to Zhang is a &#8216;blessing in disguise&#8217; and says it will open the door to other heavyweight boxers as they will feel they can beat him after watching his performance in April.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>When asked whether he regretted his first fight with Zhang, Joyce said: &#8216;That&#8217;s a tricky one. Would I preferred to have not lost and fought someone easier. It&#8217;s a difficult one.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;I have the rematch now and it&#8217;s going to be a bigger fight but it&#8217;s a hard test and a hard challenge. It also adds to the story. I don&#8217;t know. If I could do it all again, would I have taken it? It&#8217;s a difficult one to answer.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Winning the rematch is going to be even sweeter. It might even make some people more willing to fight me since they can see I can be beaten. But, if I was beaten comfortably, certain fights wouldn&#8217;t come about. So it could be a blessing in disguise, especially if I win the rematch.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Joyce is confident he can beat Zhang during this weekend&#8217;s rematch at\u00a0Wembley&#8217;s OVO Arena and blames a &#8216;last minute change of strategy&#8217; for his defeat in their first fight.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Joyce also spoke about how he spent more time boxing southpaws in this camp as he realised the &#8216;defence and the attack is completely different&#8217;.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>A post shared by Queensberry (@queensberrypromotions)<\/p>\n<p>A post shared by Joe Joyce (@joejoyceboxing)<\/p>\n<p>The Juggernaut said:\u00a0&#8216;I&#8217;ll be making minor tweaks [rather than an overhaul in tactics].\u00a0There was some strategy last minute that Salas got me to do to stay away from his lead hook and his lead left jab.\u00a0But, then I hadn&#8217;t practiced it enough to get away from the left backhand.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Zhang is a very good counterpuncher so whenever I was engaging with him at range, he would be countering me with the left hand as I was bringing my guard back.\u00a0Just as I punched, he was throwing before I could get my guard back.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Yeah I just feel like I needed more time. Zhang is a natural southpaw. He&#8217;s been fighting orthodox fighters his whole career.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;In his previous fight, he fought Hrgovic &#8211; who has a very similar style to mine. So, he was much more prepared for me than I was for him.\u00a0Going back into camp, I needed to do some more practice with a southpaw stance. The defence and the attack is completely different.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sport\/boxing\/article-12548285\/Joe-Joyce-opens-drastic-weight-loss-fight-Zhilei-Zhang-defeat-actually-OPEN-door-heavyweights-tactical-changes-hes-ahead-rematch-weekend.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>EXCLUSIVE: Joe Joyce opens up on his drastic weight-loss for his first fight with Zhilei Zhang, how his defeat will actually OPEN the door to <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/exclusive-joyce-on-weight-loss-sparring-southpaws-tactical-changes\/\" title=\"EXCLUSIVE: Joyce on weight-loss, sparring southpaws &amp; tactical changes\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289564,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>EXCLUSIVE: Joyce on weight-loss, sparring southpaws &amp; tactical changes - Sportstoft<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/exclusive-joyce-on-weight-loss-sparring-southpaws-tactical-changes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"EXCLUSIVE: Joyce on weight-loss, sparring southpaws &amp; tactical changes - Sportstoft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"EXCLUSIVE: Joe Joyce opens up on his drastic weight-loss for his first fight with Zhilei Zhang, how his defeat will actually OPEN the door to [...]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/exclusive-joyce-on-weight-loss-sparring-southpaws-tactical-changes\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sportstoft\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-09-22T08:34:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeanette\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/EXCLUSIVE-Joyce-on-weight-loss-sparring-southpaws-tactical-changes.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeanette\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/exclusive-joyce-on-weight-loss-sparring-southpaws-tactical-changes\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/exclusive-joyce-on-weight-loss-sparring-southpaws-tactical-changes\/\",\"name\":\"EXCLUSIVE: Joyce on weight-loss, sparring southpaws &amp; tactical changes - Sportstoft\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2023-09-22T08:34:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-09-22T08:34:32+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74db1979fe71b5ea01513ec1ce5bc609\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/exclusive-joyce-on-weight-loss-sparring-southpaws-tactical-changes\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/exclusive-joyce-on-weight-loss-sparring-southpaws-tactical-changes\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/exclusive-joyce-on-weight-loss-sparring-southpaws-tactical-changes\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Boxing\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/category\/boxing\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"EXCLUSIVE: Joyce on weight-loss, sparring southpaws &amp; tactical changes\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/\",\"name\":\"Sportstoft\",\"description\":\"sportstoft.com\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74db1979fe71b5ea01513ec1ce5bc609\",\"name\":\"Jeanette\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7cef2e0d8d634cb49d54f7c48b549a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7cef2e0d8d634cb49d54f7c48b549a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jeanette\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"EXCLUSIVE: Joyce on weight-loss, sparring southpaws &amp; tactical changes - Sportstoft","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/exclusive-joyce-on-weight-loss-sparring-southpaws-tactical-changes\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"EXCLUSIVE: Joyce on weight-loss, sparring southpaws &amp; tactical changes - Sportstoft","og_description":"EXCLUSIVE: Joe Joyce opens up on his drastic weight-loss for his first fight with Zhilei Zhang, how his defeat will actually OPEN the door to [...]","og_url":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/exclusive-joyce-on-weight-loss-sparring-southpaws-tactical-changes\/","og_site_name":"Sportstoft","article_published_time":"2023-09-22T08:34:32+00:00","author":"Jeanette","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_image":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/EXCLUSIVE-Joyce-on-weight-loss-sparring-southpaws-tactical-changes.jpg","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeanette","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/exclusive-joyce-on-weight-loss-sparring-southpaws-tactical-changes\/","url":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/exclusive-joyce-on-weight-loss-sparring-southpaws-tactical-changes\/","name":"EXCLUSIVE: Joyce on weight-loss, sparring southpaws &amp; tactical changes - Sportstoft","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2023-09-22T08:34:32+00:00","dateModified":"2023-09-22T08:34:32+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74db1979fe71b5ea01513ec1ce5bc609"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/exclusive-joyce-on-weight-loss-sparring-southpaws-tactical-changes\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/exclusive-joyce-on-weight-loss-sparring-southpaws-tactical-changes\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/boxing\/exclusive-joyce-on-weight-loss-sparring-southpaws-tactical-changes\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Boxing","item":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/category\/boxing\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"EXCLUSIVE: Joyce on weight-loss, sparring southpaws &amp; tactical changes"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/","name":"Sportstoft","description":"sportstoft.com","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#\/schema\/person\/74db1979fe71b5ea01513ec1ce5bc609","name":"Jeanette","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7cef2e0d8d634cb49d54f7c48b549a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d7cef2e0d8d634cb49d54f7c48b549a1?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Jeanette"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289565"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289565"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289565\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289565"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289565"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportstoft.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289565"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}