Zhilei Zhang-Joe Joyce Rematch Set For September In London

Zhilei Zhang and Joe Joyce are set to rematch.

Back in April, Zhang stunned Joyce with a sixth-round TKO to become the new interim WBO heavyweight title. After the loss, many wondered if Joyce would trigger his rematch clause as even Frank Warren didn’t know.

“Zhilei is under contract with Queensberry for the foreseeable future and he’s got a great group of people we work with for him. If Joe wants that rematch, it’s his right to invoke it, it’s not ours. Our relationship with Zhilei will continue if he doesn’t, he’s got that decision to make,” Warren said to talkSPORT Breakfast. “He can do it immediately. He could take a fight and we could look to revisit it later in the year. At the moment, we’ve got to see how bad that eye is. We are going to have to assess it, he’s going to have to look at the performance and what went wrong but that decision on the rematch is down to him.”

Now, however, Joyce ultimately did trigger the rematch clause and the fight between Joe Joyce and Zhilei Zhang will go down on September 2 at OVO Arena Wembley in London, England. The event is expected to be broadcasted on ESPN+ in the United States.

Joe Joyce (15-1) suffered the TKO loss to Zhang to lose his interim title. Prior to that, he scored a KO win over Joseph Parker to win the vacant WBO title. In his career, Joyce holds notable wins over Christian Hammer, Carlos Takam, Daniel Dubois, Michael Wallisch, and Bryant Jennings among others.

Zhilei Zhang (25-1-1) returned to the win column last time out with the TKO win over Joyce. Prior to that, he suffered a decision loss to Filip Hrgovic. In his career, the Chinese heavyweight has notable wins over Devin Vargas, Andriy Rudenko, Peter Graham, and Scott Alexander among others.

Who do you think will win, Joe Joyce or Zhilei Zhang?