Zhilei Zhang and Joe Joyce will meet in a rematch at Wembley’s OVO Arena on Sept. 23, it was announced today.
Joyce (15-1, 14 KOs) activated his rematch clause last month after Zhang (25-1-1, 20 KOs) triumphed in an upset in April.
The fight was stopped on the advice of the ringside doctor in Round six after Joyce’s right eye was swollen completely shut.
“Joyce had the right to call for the rematch in either of the next two fights but has chosen to have the fight now,” Joyce’s manager, Adam Morallee, told ESPN last month. “I think he would have won the first fight had it continued and the eye hadn’t gone.
“I think he would have swarmed him in the second half of the fight. That was always going to be a fight of two halves and unfortunately he got injured in the first half.”
Joyce, 37, was in position to fight Tyson Fury had he beaten Zhang in April but now has the opportunity to reclaim his status as the number one for Aleksandr Usyk’s belt.