‘Tyson Fury, let’s do it’: Zhilei Zhang makes callout after Joyce win

Zhilei Zhang says Tyson Fury will experience the same loss Joe Joyce did if they fight.

Zhilei Zhang may have a mandatory spot in line to face Oleksandr Usyk, but it sounds like his attention is fully on landing a fight with Tyson Fury after today’s knockout win over Joe Joyce.

While blowing off an intervening Derek Chisora in a post-fight interview, Zhang (26-1-1, 21 KO) said he nearly had a deal done with Fury once, and believes it can be revisited.

“I want Tyson Fury,” he said. “I was very close to making a deal with Tyson Fury until Joe Joyce activated his rematch clause. Now there are no more barriers. The road is clear. Let’s do it.”

Zhang said Joyce’s fate would also await Fury should they fight.

“Same thing,” he said. “Chinese power and Chinese speed!”

WBC titleholder Fury (33-0-1, 24 KO) would, with respect to Usyk, make for a surely bigger money fight for the 40-year-old Zhang, who now has some solid name value in the UK, where Fury has proven he can sell stadiums in the country even against the aforementioned Chisora in a fight nobody actively wanted to see.

The fight could also be big money in Saudi Arabia, where Fury will face Francis Ngannou in a novelty fight on Oct. 28, or, just maybe, it could be the big money fight that’s going to come to China that has been promised for nearly a decade and never developed.