Dereck Chisora savaged Joe Joyce after his punishing KO defeat by Zhilei Zhang on Saturday night, claiming his performance was ‘poor and c**p’.
Joyce was stopped in the third round at Wembley Arena by the Chinese fighter after being hit clean with a powerful right hook, leaving question marks over his career and instantly propelling Zhang to the top of the heavyweight conversation.
It was Joyce’s second successive defeat to Zhang having also been stopped by his rival in their first fight back in April after too much damage was done to his eye in round six.
‘The Juggernaut’ has faced multiple calls to quit boxing aged 38 having taken plenty of punishment from Zhang and looking off the pace and Chisora could find no positives when asked for his thoughts on his display.
‘The only big difference that Joe did was put on weight, that’s it,’ Chisora said to talkSPORT. ‘Anything else was poor and c**p.
Dereck Chisora blasted Joe Joyce’s performance against Zhilei Zhang as ‘poor and c**p’
Joyce was stopped in the third round by Zhang and has faced calls to retire from boxing
‘I kept on telling him, double jab, step forward, but he didn’t do that. You can tell a strong guy, look at Zhang’s calves, he’s very powerful.’
‘Del Boy’ went on to call out Zhang himself, predicting he would beat the Chinese heavyweight, but admitted it wouldn’t be an easy fight.
After being asked by iFL TV what he had been seen saying to Frank Warren after the fight, he added: ‘I said I want Zhang. We will talk about it. We’ll get Eddie Hearn to deliver it. I’ll beat Zhang. It will be a long night but I’ll beat Zhang. I like southpaws.’
After the fight, which means Zhang keeps his place as WBO interim champion and the mandatory challenger to any fight between Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk, Joyce hit back at suggestions he could call it a day.
Speaking after defeat, he said: ‘I’m feeling good, I’m feeling OK.
‘It’s not the end of the world. I can rebuild and come back,’ he said. ‘I am going to take a bit of time to reflect and review where I went wrong.’
However, Matchroom Boxing chief Hearn was among the voices urging him to consider retirement, claiming he could not walk through punches anymore.
‘He’s 38? He’s taken a huge amount of punishment in sparring, in fights,’ Hearn said in an interview with IFL after Conor Benn’s comeback fight in Florida.
Chisora wants to fight Zhang next and believes he would defeat the 40-year-old
Joyce has hit back at suggestions he could call it a day despite looking well off the pace
‘His greatest asset was his ability to take punches and walk through them – he can’t do it anymore.
Asked about a fight between Joyce and Joshua, Hearn replied: ‘No, that would be dangerous. Honestly, he shouldn’t be boxing.
‘He’s had a great career, he should’ve been Olympic champion, he won the interim world heavyweight title and I’m sure he’s made a lot of money as well.
‘AJ punches as hard as Zhang with much more speed. It’s not the right fight to make, you have to protect these guys. It’s a car crash that fight. A car crash.’