Frank Warren Plans To ‘Stand By Joe Joyce’ After Back-To-Back Losses

Frank Warren will be standing by Joe Joyce after the heavyweight contender lost by KO to Zhilei Zhang for the second straight fight.

On Saturday, Joyce was rematching Zhang for the interim WBO heavyweight title, after the Chinese heavyweight stunned Joyce earlier this year. Unfortnately for Joyce, the result was the same, as he was stopped once again.

Now, following the loss, his promoter Frank Warren says he will be standing by Joe Joyce regardless of what decision he makes.

“That’s his choice (regarding retirement),” Warren told iFL TV (h/t BoxingScene). “The criticism I got was that I was giving him up. I didn’t say that. People don’t listen. They don’t listen to what I said. I know what I said. Go back and listen rather than grab something out of the air and interpret it to something that wasn’t even [said]….I can’t be responsible for what they say. I can only be responsible for what I do and what I intend to do.

“And I intend to stand by Joe Joyce. The same as I stood by Daniel Dubois, the same that I stand by any fighter I work with if they get beat. We bring them back. There are two fighters on that card, one suffered a serious hand injury in [super middleweight contender] Zach Parker, which was a final eliminator for a world title. We put him back in. We got behind him and hopefully he’ll be back in contention to get another crack at the title. We’ve done the same with [light heavyweight contender] Anthony Yarde. That’s what we do. We stick by our guys. We don’t discard them. I wouldn’t do that. And I certainly wouldn’t do that because I like working with them,” Warren continued.

With the loss, Joe Joyce dropped to 15-2 as a pro and where he goes from here is uncertain.

What do you think should be next for Joe Joyce?