Next month, two of the heavyweight boxing giants – Zhang Zhilei "The Big Bang" and Deontay "The Bronze Bomber" Wilder – will compete in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and who will win the encounter between the heavy gunners? This week, Great Britain's Joe Joyce made predictions for the match.
Zhang Zhilei vs Wild will be part of the 5-on-5 event hosted by the competition room promotion company and the Queensberry promotion company, for both fighters, this battle is crucial, will be directly related to the trend of the two careers, to put it more bluntly, if anyone loses the game, basically have to consider the issue of retirement.
Zhang Zhilei and Wilder both lost to the same opponent - Joseph Parker in the last match, but compared to Wilder's point defeat, Zhang Zhilei was more prominent in the confrontation with Parker, he knocked out his opponent twice, but was finally reversed by Parker.
Joyce is very familiar with Zhang Zhilei, who has lost twice to his opponents in 2023 and was stopped in both cases. In his latest interview, Joyce compared the Zhang Zhilei vs. Wild fight with Wilder and Louis Ortiz "King Kong" because Zhang Zhilei and Ottiz are both left-handed, and the two have a lot of similarities.
Ortiz came close to destroying his opponent in a 2018 bout with Wilder, and then in a rematch in 2019, Ortiz was knocked out by Wilder in a slip-up after leading on points.
"When Wilder played against Ortiz, Ortiz seemed to win, until he stopped and started moving in the other direction and ended up stuck there," Joyce said. ”
In Joyce's view, Ortiz was superior to Zhang Zhilei in some aspects, but was destroyed by Wilder, so it was difficult for Zhang Zhilei to shake Wilder. Joyce pointed out some of Zhang's weaknesses, such as his foot movements, and he believes that "Big Bang" will eventually be knocked out by Wild.
"Right now, Zhang doesn't have that good foot movement, but he's pretty good defensively and he's great on the counter-attack, but I think Wilder moves faster and he can obviously hit the target," Joyce said. Wilder has been quite patient in waiting for his chances, and this game will be two snipers circling each other. ”
Joyce added: "Zhang Zhilei has better technique, he's a left-hander, but I don't know, maybe the best guy will win. Wilder can obviously throw punches, so it's a very interesting fight. ”
Although Zhang Zhilei and Ortiz are both left-handed, their styles are not the same, and Ortiz's skills are indeed delicate, but what he has not done, Zhang Zhilei can do it. Zhang Zhilei and Ortiz are undoubtedly more violent, but Otiz's two games against Wilder, Zhang Zhilei needs to study it carefully, he wants to avoid repeating Otiz's mistakes, Ortiz rematch is not to hurt Wilder early, but to bring the game into depth, this is a painful lesson, Zhang Zhilei must not do this.
Joyce also spoke with interest about the upcoming Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk boxing unification bout this week. So far, it seems that Fury has lost weight to deal with Usyk, but can it really make a difference? Joyce believes that this will effectively improve Fury's stamina and agility, giving him more options in the game.
"Even if Fury lowers his weight, he'll still be heavier than Usyk, maybe it will make Fury move faster in the fight, maybe it will help him punch more often," Joyce said. You know, if Fury wants to go further, he can do it. Fury and Wilder are both very skillful, and power isn't the only advantage for the two, it's just that Fury proved that he can knock out his opponent and see him destroy Dillian White with an uppercut, and if Fury's punch lands, I don't know what will happen, but I'll be excited about it. ”