Joe Joyce Seriously Considering Retirement

In their match last Saturday, Briton Joe Joyce and Croat Filip Hrgovic crossed their gloves at the heavyweight event in Co-op Live Arena in Manchester. A former WBO interim heavyweight champion in 2022-2023 and an ex-British boxing champion, Joyce seems to have been on a slippery slope in the last few matches. The clash against the former European Champion in 2015 and the IBF interim heavyweight title challenger from 2024 showed that those who claimed the 39-year-old Londoner was in a sort of crisis were right.

The match itself turned out to be slightly better for Joyce than the predictions showed. The odds gave him +475, i.e., 5.75, as a winner after the judges’ decision. His chances were quite bad for a knockout win: +800 (9.00).

Hrgovic’s knockout odds, on the other hand, were around -125 (1.80) while the chance of winning after the judges’ decision was +260 (3.60). Indeed, most relevant predictions claimed that Hrgovic would win this match after a knockout. So, many bettors followed those instructions and wagered on the 33-year-old Croat. Some have changed their minds, though, as the match unfolded, and added some new live bets during the match. Now online platforms allow betting with no KYC checks, which speeds things up, especially for placing live bets. What’s important here is to make sure people choose verified, trustworthy websites.

So, on the surface, the outcome of the match wasn’t a terrible one for Joyce, given the fact that Hrgovic didn’t knock Joyce out - they even completed all 10 rounds, although the pre-match analyses predicted the match would last for less than 8 rounds. But in the aftermath of this fight, Joyce seemed very disappointed.

He was defeated twice by Zhilei Zhang in 2023, which was when he started thinking about making some serious changes in his professional career. The match against Hrgovic was his attempt at reliving some of his old successes; after all, out of 20 professional fights, he’s had 16 wins (15 by knocking out his opponents), and only 4 defeats. In March 2024, Joyce defeated Kash Ali, when it looked like he would regain some of his power and get back on a winning streak. Nevertheless, in July last year, he also suffered a loss against Derek Chisora, which shook his confidence. Joyce has been trying to get back into physical and mental shape for the last eight months, perceiving the match against Hrgovic as a chance for a big comeback.

The Croat praised his style and tactic after the match, claiming that he showed some great warrior’s skills and it was a real, open combat. The unanimous decision might deceive you if you haven’t seen the match, but the score (98-92, 96-95, and 97-93) confirms that Joyce wasn’t humiliated; au contraire.

The following days will tell us whether Joe Joyce will want to have another match and go for another big comeback attempt - this is what promoter Frank Warren is predicting - or he will simply decide it’s time to farewell the world of professional boxing.