Joyce vs Chisora: who wins?

On Saturday, British heavyweights Joe Joyce and Derek Chisora will meet at the 02 Arena in London. For the latest fight odds, visit our sportsbook.

Chisora has provided boxing fans with excitement in and out of the ring for years and whilst he continues to land high profile fights, it is widely accepted that his days of troubling the division’s top operators are over. Chisora only knows one way to fight and – matched with the right opponent – is still capable of providing excitement but is at the end of an unpredictable career.

For Joyce, the stakes are much higher. The Olympic silver medallist and former WBO Interim champion is still rebuilding from the crushing pair of defeats he suffered at the hands of China’s Zhilei Zhang last year.

There may still be time for Joyce to land one major career-defining fight but he needs to put in a dominant performance against Chisora or else he too could lose his seat at boxing’s top table for good.

Let’s look at how the heavyweight rivals match up.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

It is testament to both fighters’ popularity that they have managed to become household names without ever managing to win the ‘big one’.

If you admire longevity then you may well believe that Chisora, 34-13 (23 KOs), is the more accomplished of the two and point to his list of high profile fights and long running rivalries with the likes of Tyson Fury, Dillian Whyte and Joseph Parker. Chisora has also shared the ring with Vitali Klitschko, David Haye and Oleksandr Usyk. It is a harsh fact which does no justice to Chisora’s efforts but he has lost every single one of those fights, however.

Joyce, 16-2 (15 KOs), has had a shorter but equally as violent career. The Olympic silver medallist jumped in at the deep end when he boxed the tough Ian Lewison in his very first professional fight and has done things the hard way since. Like Chisora, he is a former British, Commonwealth and European heavyweight champion and also stopped former WBO heavyweight king, Joseph Parker, and future IBF heavyweight champion, Daniel Dubois. The quality Zhilei Zhang proved to be just too much for him and stopped him twice last year.

POWER

Joyce is the harder puncher of the two. The 6ft 6in tall ‘Juggernaut’ isn’t fast but puts every ounce of his 270lbs into every shot. His punches are like, you can see them coming and brace for impact but the impact can still have a devastating effect. Joyce’s jab has proven to be potent enough to do significant damage at world level and if his single shots don’t do the job then his relentless, thudding attacks have taken their toll on all but the very best.

Chisora isn’t a one punch knockout artist but wears people down with his desire and workrate. There have been spectacular knockouts of fighters like David Price, Artur Szpilka and Carlos Takam but generally, Chisora declares a war of attrition and sets about breaking his opponent’s heart. Does he still have the desire and gas tank to push back a strong giant like Joyce?

CHIN

Not long ago, this would have been a battle between two of the heavyweight division’s most resolute, iron clad chins. Both Joyce and Chisora have made careers of willingly walking through the best their opponent can offer in order to get their own shots off.

For years, 38-year-old Joyce appeared to be unstoppable. Time and time again, big punchers would land hard, clean punches squarely on Joyce’s chin but rather than stopping him in his tracks, the shots would simply bounce off, barely seeming to register on the Londoner. Although Joyce was blessed with a granite chin, there is a limit to just how much a boxer can take before cracks begin to show and Zhilei Zhang turned those cracks into chasms. The Chinese fighter hurt Joyce repeatedly in their first fight and then knocked him out in the rematch.

Chisora’s marauding style of fighting relies on his being able to absorb a certain amount of punishment and for years, he was renowned as a rough, tough, long night’s work for anybody. Chisora is now 40 and has been stopped four times – by David Haye, Dillian Whyte and twice by Tyson Fury – but has been mixing with the best fighters the heavyweight division has to offer for 17 years. In December 2022, Chisora absorbed ten rounds of punishment from then heavyweight champion, Fury, before being rescued by the referee.

Both fighters are more vulnerable than they have been at any stage of their career.

WHO WINS?

This is a much more difficult question to answer than it would have been 18 months ago. Back then, Joyce had just knocked out Joseph Parker and looked unstoppable whilst a shopworn Chisora was recovering from a painful defeat at the hands of Fury.

Joyce’s decline since has been dramatic. Zhilei Zhang didn’t just beat him twice, he repeatedly hurt him throughout the first fight and then knocked a confidence-sapped, fragile-looking Joyce out in the rematch. Joe got back to winning ways against Kash Ali in March but looked a shadow of his former self.

Chisora, too, is far removed from the energetic, aggressive handful who caused top heavyweights so many problems. He has lost the verve and snap he used to carry and has become a much more stationary target than he used to be.

Joyce should still have enough to beat Chisora and position himself for one last climb towards the top of the heavyweight division.

The loser will have to make the tough decision about whether the time has come to bring a memorable career to an end.

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