BOXING fans were open-mouthed after Joe Joyce was left shut-eyed – because one judge had the battered, beaten Brit LEADING Zhilei Zhang.
Viewers called for an investigation into the “shameful” and crazy” scorecard after outclassed Joyce was pulled out in round six, with his right eye horribly swollen and vision limited.
Zhilei Zhang lands again as Joe Joyce bravely fought on before the fight was stopped in the sixth round at the Copperbox Arena
Brutally-beaten Joyce grins but can hardly bear it after Chinese heavyweight Zhang destroyed him, even though the Brit was ahead on one judge’s scorecard
Zhang’s one-sided win means the Chinese heavyweight now has the WBO interim belt and is that organisation’s mandatory challenge for Oleksandr Usyk‘s WBA, IBF & WBO world titles.
One fan posted: “Joyce up by 1 on a judge’s scorecard. Never in a million years.”
Another wrote: “Whichever judge has Joyce up on the scorecard should probably be investigated .”
And a third summed up the consensus on social media with this message: “One judge had Joyce up on the cards! Crazy. Thankfully Zhang pressed for the stoppage. Fully deserved.”
A fourth found the verdict too amusing to take seriously as he said: Loooool. I love boxing.”
Even Joyce admitted afterwards: “I am disappointed with my performance, I could not get out of the way of his shots.”
Both his eyes were bloodied and bruised, having survived in particular an astonishing pounding in round two.
And eventually the referee stopped the contest on the advice of a doctor.
Fans praised Zhang, 39, as much as they berated the performance of Joyce and at least one of the judges.
One said of the pummelled Putney 37-year-old: “Shouldn’t really be much of a surprise. You can’t use your face as a form of defence at a high level.”
And amid all the disbelief for the controversial scorecard, another observer wrote: “Zhang was superb. Rocked Joyce so many times – who just gets caught so much”.
A similar opinion was: “Don’t let the stoppage take anything away from Zhang he was phenomenal & Joyce was horrific.”
One judge went more over the top than this Zhang punch, many boxing fans reckon
Did you miss our previous article...
https://secondsaway.co.uk/boxing/after-the-creator-clash-victory-dad-calls-out-the-entire-wwe-and-makes-a-swipe-at-logan-paul
