Zhilei Zhang Wants Tyson Fury Or Oleksandr Usyk Fight In China After Win Over Joe Joyce

Zhilei Zhang hopes to secure a world heavyweight title fight against Tyson Fury in China after he ‘walked through’ Joe Joyce on Saturday night, says his co-manager Terry Lane.

Zhang produced a commanding display against Joyce at the Copper Box Arena, inflicting the first defeat of the British heavyweight’s professional career with a stunning sixth-round stoppage.

Zhang’s victory served as the perfect response to his own divisive first career defeat at the hands of Filip Hrgovic in their IBF title eliminator last August, and he has his sights firmly set on another title shot.

“This is what we expected,” Zhang’s co-manager Terry Lane told Sky Sports. “I believe Zhilei is the best heavyweight in the world. Anybody who thinks otherwise, I don’t think they are really paying attention.

“Is there a heavyweight who’s got a better resume in the last 12 months? He beat Hrgovic but didn’t get his hand raised. He just walked through Joe Joyce, which we knew would happen.

“He’s been turned down by Anthony Joshua, [Derek] Chisora and [Dillian] Whyte. They won’t touch him, so they’re out of the equation.

“He would physically injure and end the career of Deontay Wilder. No-one can make a fight with him, so what does that leave? [Oleksandr] Usyk and Tyson Fury.

“I know the whole sanctioning body scramble is a mess right now. No one knows how to decipher, no one knows what’s going to happen, but those are two fights that are the toughest fights, but they are the ones we want and they are the biggest fights.

“We want to talk with George [Warren] and make that happen. Our future plans are to be future world champion. Technically, he has a piece of the world title [WBO interim belt] which is historic in China.

“We had an amazing response, millions and millions of views in China last night with our partnership with Tik Tok. It really beat all of our expectations, in terms of the response. People waking up at 5am to pay a dollar to watch him fight.

“I see the guy in the gym sparring and he beats the brakes off big heavyweights all the time. I know what we have and maybe other people are just becoming wise to it, but it’s something that I’m very excited about.

“He’s not young, he’s going to turn 40 on May 2, but we want the world titles. We want the title opportunities because now we can make that commercially successful in China, which was really hard to do before.

“Our partners there are trying some things and, frankly, they worked last night. We’ll sit down with Queensberry [Fury’s UK promoters] and see what they want to do.”

‘Disappointed’ Joyce: I’ll be back

A crestfallen Joyce told BT Sport after his defeat on Saturday night: “I’m just disappointed with my performance.

“I think the [left] hand he kept hitting me with, I couldn’t get out of the way.

“Respect to Zhilei Zhang, it was a good fight but I think I could have done better, I think because I haven’t fought a southpaw for so long.

“Credit to him because he was a good fighter, and I gave it my all. I think I could do better but it’s just disappointing.

“I’d like to apologise to all of my fans and supporters. But I also want to thank you for coming down here, I’ll be back, my journey’s not over, this is just a hurdle I may have tripped over, so I’ll be back.”