Joe Joyce’s boxing career is in complete free fall as he suffered another knockout loss over the weekend, getting stopped in eleven rounds by Artem Suslenkov in Russia. The loss is the third straight for Joyce, and his fifth loss in his last six fights, half of which came by way of knockout. A one-time interim champion, Joyce appears to be clearly overcooked as a professional fighter, and getting stopped overseas while trying to rebuild his career obviously only further sets him back.
Now at age 40,
one has to wonder what is left.
Prior to this weekend Joyce (16-5, 15 KOs) lost a unanimous decision to Filip Hrgovic in April 2025, which was preceded by another decision loss to Derek Chisora, before which he was twice knocked out by Zhilei Zhang with a win over Kash Ali between the Zhang and Chisora fights.
Joyce was a come-forward tank at one point, but once that armor was cracked he hasn’t been nearly the same fighter. And considering he never had skills of evasiveness, his inability to absorb damage like he once did only doesn’t provide any genuinely good prospects for him going forward. He hasn’t officially announced his retirement yet, but it seems an inevitability.
