Joe Joyce vs. Zhilei Zhang was a professional boxing match contested on for the WBO interim heavyweight title.

[1][2] Joe Joyce won the WBO Interim World Heavyweight title in a September 2022 bout against Joseph Parker.

[3][4][1] In December 2022, Joyce told Sky Sports that he planned to stay busy, next scheduling a fight for March 2023.

[5] It was reported on 20 January 2023, 39 year old Chinese contender Zhilei was to challenge Joyce for the interim WBO title at on 15 April in London.

Zhang was coming off a close decision loss to fellow contender Filip Hrgović, after dropping him in the opening round in August 2022.

[7] On 2 February, Queensberry Promotions announced Joyce would defend his WBO Interim heavyweight title at the Copper Box Arena in London against Zhang on 15 April.

Frank Warren explained, whilst they wanted to keep Joyce busy before an inevitable world title fight, he would still take on tough challenges.

George also voiced concern about the referee decision, as Foster had often been criticized for stopping fights early.

[15][16] In a surprise upset, Joyce lost the fight via TKO in round six, marking the first loss of his professional career.

The fight continued on and in round 6, Zhang piled on the power shots landing a 5-punch combination to Joyce's head.

Joyce said it was difficult fighting a southpaw after a long time and he had trouble trying to avoid Zhang's left hand.