[SimonTemplar]

I gave up worrying about this nonsense over 30 years ago. Firstly the WBC at that time introduced something called an international title. Which was similar to the interim titles these days confusing the public.
Then the British Promoters decided to give credence to the WBO, and younger fans might not know this but the WBO was as lightly regarded as the IBO is today. Neither the fans or the Boxing Press gave much recognition to it.

In Britain even with the 3 other belts British fighters hardly ever won world titles. So the Promoters here went with the WBO and suddenly at the dawn of the 1990's we had World Champs left right and centre.

A few years down the line even the WBO became too hard for British fighters. So Promoters here recognised the WBU title. This WBU was Started by some guy at his kitchen table. I think Ricky Hatton is the greatest ever WBU champ. That organisation split into to two groups and has more or less disappeared.

And we also had the WBF title. It is still going and Johnny Nelson for a brief period in history was the WBF heavyweight Champion of the World.

With out the WBO title, guys like Chris Eubank and Nigel Benn would never have become British legends. And Ironically the best British Middleweight of that generation who was avoided by both of them that is Herol Graham. Has by and large been forgotten. Only remembered the Boxing Nerds from that era.

I fondly remember Audley constantly talking up the WBF as a proper sanctioning body. Ah, simpler, happier times.

 

[SimonTemplar]

This fight seemed like a risky proposition for Joyce who was on the cusp of a title fight. A smarter management would have put him in with someone alot easier. In anycase I will give him credit for taking a risky fight when he did not need to.

Hopefully he can get a 7 figure paycheck in the future against one of the bigger names. But at his age and technical limitations it seems more and more unlikely. I suspect another loss and that will be it for him.

Agreed - tough to see a route to the money at his age given the manner of the Zhang fight. Not sure he'd do much different in a rematch, so perhaps best avoid that. But then who does he fight who brings him closer? Not sure there is anything available which would help. Tough moments for him. Credit for taking the fight, but hasn't worked out at all well.

 

[SimonTemplar]

Yeah, Zhang couldn't hardly miss with that left and at times it looked like Joyce was doing his best to see they connected. You'd think after getting tagged a handful of times he'd do a better job of defending against it, but he didn't.

At age 37, it gets harder and harder to get back into contention. There's been a lot of fights I've seen over the years where a guy lined up for a title shot lost what many considered a tune-up fight and then never got the chance to try for the title.

Yes agreed. A bit worrying that he made basically zero adjustment when he was eating so many lefts. Just let them keep coming. Being a juggernaut is all well and good, but you can't be just a juggernaut and go all the way without being found out. I'd hoped he had a better boxing brain than that.