9 months ago
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ANTHONY JOSHUA and Francis Ngannou meet in a blockbuster bout of massive proportion – but an undercard fight threatens to steal the show.
The night’s co-headliner on Friday in Saudi Arabia sees Joseph Parker face Zhilei Zhang.
GettyParker, 32, comes into the bout having stunned Deontay Wilder, 38, in December and in turn KOing his clash with AJ.
Meanwhile, Zhang, 40, is coming off two stoppage wins over Joe Joyce, 38, and currently stands as the WBO interim champion.
Joyce actually stopped Parker in 11 thrilling rounds in 2023, making him an expert for the Riyadh rumble.
And ahead of his return fight against Kash Ali on March 16 in Birmginham, the 2016 Olympic silver medalist broke down the bout.
Joyce told SunSport: “If Zhang can hit him like he hit me, obviously Zhang.
“But Parker, he’s got good footwork, he’s got probably better defence, he’s tough, he can hit hard as well.
“It’s a different fight. He might be better at dealing with southpaws and have a better game plan to beat him.
“So I’m really intrigued to see what the outcome of that fight will be and that’s the thing, boxing is about entertainment and entertaining fights.”
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Joyce looked primed for a heavyweight world title shot himself before back-to-back defeats to Zhang.
But he dusted himself off and prepares to bounce back and punch his ticket back into big-time boxing once again.
Joyce added: “Right now, there’s so many different characters at the top of the heavyweight division where you’d like to see the matchups.
“You wanna see me fight everyone really, everyone should fight everyone and especially now I’ve taken a loss, I don’t need to look after that converted 0 and be scared to take fights.
“It means I can get in the mix with everyone, it doesn’t really matter.”
Zhang twice stopped JoyceRichard Pelham / The Sun
Parker was knocked out by JoyceRichard Pelham / The Sun
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