Joe Joyce Told To Retire ‘For His Health’

Joe Joyce has been advised to retire from the sport following his loss to Filip Hrgovic.

Joyce suffered a fourth defeat from his last five fights, as he lost a unanimous decision. During this period, he was knocked out twice by Zhilei Zhang and suffered a decision loss against Derek Chisora, after which the Hrgovic result came. Those defeats meant Joyce was further away from a world title, having previously been the WBO Interim Heavyweight Champion. The 39-year-old has shown a decline in his chin, which is the prized asset that won him the nickname The Juggernaut.

He demonstrated this in his victories against Daniel Dubois and Joseph Parker. Since those fights, Dubois and Parker have had a resurgence. Dubois has stopped his last two opponents in the form of Jarrell Miller and Anthony Joshua. That made him the IBF Interim Heavyweight Champion after which he secured the full title once Oleksandr Usyk vacated. Meanwhile, Parker secured the WBO Interim Heavyweight Title with big wins against Deontay Wilder and Zhang, making him mandatory for Usyk.

Joyce now has to question whether he wants to fight lower-level opposition, hoping to eventually secure another big fight. However, he does risk suffering more damage in the ring since his style is known for taking shots. Now that his chin no longer appears to be durable, there are doubts about how far Joyce can go in the game.

Joyce’s Future

In his post-fight comments after the Hrgovic loss, Frank Warren appeared to suggest that Joyce should contemplate whether it was right for him to continue. Joyce has already said that he is not thinking about retirement. However, former boxer Matthew Macklin has suggested that Joyce should now call it quits. Hrgovic has also said the same. 

“You never want to tell any fighter to retire because ultimately it’s a personal decision. But you do wonder with the recent of form, the losses and his age and with the amount of shots he gets hit with, certainly if it was someone close to me, I would be telling him to retire. Because all those factors, weighing them up, what’s his ambition left in the game?

“He wanted to be a top flight heavyweight. Well, he was a few fights ago. With back-to-back knockout defeats to Zhang, a loss to Chisora where he got dropped and also this fight against Hrgovic where he shipped a lot of punishment, he got hit with a lot of big shots again. I just don’t see where he goes from here. I think retirement, if he was my close pal, that’s what I’d be saying to him,” Macklin said 

“I think he can give anyone a hard fight. Because he’s just tough, he keeps coming, he throws a lot of punches, he’s big. He’ll give anyone a tough fight, anyone in the division. But I think for his health it would be best that he retires,” Hrgovic stated