Joe Joyce Won't Retire, Points to Hrgovic's Turnaround
Joe Joyce says he won't retire, citing Filip Hrgovic's rise to the IBF heavyweight title as proof a career can turn around fast.
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Joe Joyce says he has no plans to retire despite losing five of his last six fights, insisting he wants to choose the moment he walks away rather than have it chosen for him.
"No, this is not the end. I want to pick when I retire, when I'm financially in a good place, and also when I've reached the heights or finished on a high. Right now, it's not time for me to retire yet. I choose when I want to retire," Joyce told IFL TV.
Joyce turns 41 on September 19, and the record over his last six outings reads as one of the roughest stretches of any heavyweight currently drawing paydays. Zhilei Zhang stopped him twice, and Artem Suslenkov added another knockout loss in July, a fight in which Joyce weighed a career-high 289 pounds.
Why Hrgovic's Rise Matters to Joyce's Case
Filip Hrgovic gives Joyce a real-world example of how fast a heavyweight's fortunes can flip. Joyce beat Hrgovic over five rounds in the World Series of Boxing back in February 2013, but Hrgovic reversed that result as a professional with a 10-round unanimous decision in April 2025. Since then, Hrgovic has stopped previously unbeaten prospect Moses Itauma in the ninth round to capture the vacant IBF heavyweight title, a result that instantly put him in the mix for a fight against the winner of Daniel Dubois and Fabio Wardley's rematch.
That turnaround is the blueprint Joyce is banking on: survive an early storm, wear an opponent down, and let one big win rewrite the narrative. It worked for Hrgovic against Itauma. Whether it can still work for Joyce is the harder question, because the tools that once made him so difficult to deal with have eroded. His size and jab used to force opponents to fight cautiously and burn energy trying to avoid him. Zhang and Suslenkov both stopped respecting that threat and started sitting down on their punches instead, treating Joyce as a target rather than a wall to escape from.
Can Joyce Get Back Into Title Contention?
A heavyweight with five losses in six fights is no longer being built toward a title shot, he's being offered as a measuring stick for someone else's prospect. That's the blunt calculation promoters are likely to make with Joyce at this stage. His path to relevance runs through getting lighter and beating a credible domestic name first, the same kind of stepping-stone win that put him on the radar in the first place. Hrgovic trimmed down from 248 1/4 pounds against David Allen to 236 1/4 under Abel Sanchez for the Itauma fight and looked sharper and fresher deep into rounds because of it. Joyce, by contrast, has trended the opposite direction, ballooning to 289 pounds for his last fight. Getting back toward the 260-pound range would be a starting point for figuring out how much mobility he has left.
For bettors, Joyce's stock has cratered to the point where he's no longer a live underdog against ranked opposition, he's the house money side in fights designed to boost someone else's record. Until he shows up noticeably lighter and beats someone that matters, expect sportsbooks and matchmakers alike to treat him as live-but-unlikely rather than a live threat. Hrgovic's leap from also-ran to titleholder shows it can happen fast, but it also shows the physical prerequisites, better conditioning and sharper output, have to be there first.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Joe Joyce planning to retire from boxing?
No. Joe Joyce told IFL TV he intends to choose the timing of his own retirement and does not consider his recent losing run the end of his career.
What is Joe Joyce's recent record?
Joe Joyce has lost five of his last six fights, including back-to-back stoppage losses to Zhilei Zhang and a knockout loss to Artem Suslenkov in July, when he weighed a career-high 289 pounds.
How does Filip Hrgovic factor into Joe Joyce's comments?
Filip Hrgovic, whom Joe Joyce beat as an amateur in 2013 but lost to as a pro in 2025, went on to stop Moses Itauma in the ninth round to win the vacant IBF heavyweight title, showing how quickly a heavyweight's career can turn around.
