Dillian Whyte reacts to Joe Joyce’s 6th-round TKO loss to Zhilei Zhang

In his quest for a crack at the world championship, Joe Joyce suffered a serious setback on Saturday night at the Copper Box Arena when he was shockingly defeated by China's Zhilei Zhang in a stoppage match.

The Juggernaut gave up his WBO Interim title after his 39-year-old opponent put on a dominant performance that compelled the referee to stop the fight in the sixth round.

Joyce's eye had a severe swelling that revealed Zhang's immense boxing ability. The damage ultimately became too great, and Howard Foster had to intervene in the middle of the battle.

For Zhang, it was the ideal retaliation to his controversial first-career loss to Filip Hrgovic in their IBF title eliminator last August. It was Joyce's first loss in a professional fight.

The build-up to the fight had predicted that Joyce might face Tyson Fury, Oleksandr Usyk, or Anthony Joshua, but it was Zhang's night, and the winner made it clear that he intended to go after the title holders.

British boxer Dillian Whyte was at the Copper Box to watch Joyce take on Zhang.

Whyte was to fight Joshua until an announcement that the former unified heavyweight champion will only return in December.

In an interview with IFL TV, Whyte stated that he is disappointed with the result as a fight with Joyce next is now dead.

Speaking to IFL TV he said, “I’m p***d because I wanted a Joe [Joyce] fight, but it’s heavyweight boxing, and like I say, if you keep taking shots, it’s only a matter of time before the shots catch up to you. 

"Unfortunately, it caught up to Joe tonight. It’s a shame.

“He was calm, relaxed, taking it easy, slipping & sliding and catching him with clean left hands,” 

“He knew he had to be calm because he couldn’t fight at Joe’s pace because he’d get tired.

Joyce took to social media to react to the loss against Zhang.

In a post on his official Twitter account, he said, "Gutted, so annoying that I lost, but credit to Zhilei Zhang for giving me a good fight and getting the victory. I’ll be back. #THEJUGGERNAUT."

Joyce before the fight against Zhang teased an all-British showdown against Anthony Joshua.

His defeat now causes a new stir in the boxing heavyweight division as he is now stripped of the WBO mandatory status to take on Ukranian professional boxer Oleksandr Usyk.