Heavyweight boxing like ‘swimming in treacle’ – Joyce

Joe Joyce says heavyweight boxing can be like "swimming in treacle" but he never considered retirement after successive losses to Zhilei Zhang.

Joyce, 38, fights fellow Briton Kash Ali on Saturday in Birmingham in his first outing since September.

He says he experienced "dark times" since losing his undefeated record.

"Mentally, it has been tough," Joyce said. "Getting slagged off on social media with certain people telling me I should retire, you have to be strong."

The losses to China's Zhang were the first of Joyce's previously perfect professional record.

Zhang secured stoppages in both fights, but the September rematch ended in a brutal knockout for Joyce, another first for the English fighter, who says losing is a lonely feeling.

"It did take me a little while to get over the losses because people treat you differently after the fight," he said.

"I already get out of the arena late after [drug] testing and there's already people taking apart the ring and everyone has left, but then there's the extra thing of losing and seeing everyone's disappointed faces.

"I'm used to winning and people being excited to see me.

"It's like a fork in the road or maybe a tree has fallen in the road, so I have to either saw it in half and move it in bits or maybe just try and drive through it or maybe take a different route and I guess that's what I've had to do.

Defeat meant Joyce lost his position as the number one challenger to Oleksandr Usyk's WBO title as the interim belt holder.

And with the British Olympic silver medallist set to turn 39 this September, there were calls from fans for him to consider retirement.

"You couldn't get much closer to a world title. I could have taken an easier fight or gone on a different route, but I looked at Zhang and me and my team thought I'd beat him," Joyce said.

Zhang, however, lost the interim title to Joseph Parker last weekend in Saudi Arabia. Parker is someone Joyce has beaten, while he also has a win over Daniel Dubois, who failed in his own world title bid against Usyk last summer.

Parker has already said there will be a rematch with Zhang, while the winner of Usyk's match against Tyson Fury in May is expected to be stripped of at least one world title.

Joyce has suffered defeats before in the amateurs and is keen to fight at least three times this year.

Ali, 32, is someone Joyce has sparred with multiple times and has two losses and 22 wins.

Parker only needed 18 months to turn his fortunes around following a heavy loss to Joyce, who is confident he can do the same if he can get the right fights.

"It's like swimming in treacle," Joyce said of heavyweight boxing, having originally won the interim title in September 2022 when he beat Parker.

"You're trying to get something and you think things are going to play out in a certain way and then they completely don't.

"The belts get held up again or delayed, it's kind of frustrating sometimes. I want to be successful and win a world title with all the bells and whistles, but it's not easy and it hasn't been easy for me.

"It has been pretty hard throughout my career. What do I have to do?

"You're only as good as your last win so once I get a good victory everybody is like 'oh, look at him'."