Ali shows courage, but not enough fire

Kash Ali…posed Joyce problems. Image courtesy of Sky Sports

I’M still not sure what to make of hulking Solihull heavyweight Kash Ali’s spirited stand against former British, European and “world” champ Joe Joyce.

Kash showed courage to survive, when seemingly running on empty, until the 10th and final round of Saturday’s Resorts World, Birmingham, clash, promoted by Queensberry and screened on TNT.

But I felt the huge fighter could and should’ve let his hands go more. The frustration of trainer Richard Towers was understandable and at one point he bellowed at Ali between rounds: “I could beat him now, but you’re p****** around.”

We know menacing, shaven headed Ali, now based in Rotherham, can punch. And the 34-year-old connected with some mighty right swings after retreating to corners. I wanted to see more of them.

Joyce, quite frankly, looked a shadow of the man who beat Daniel Dubois and Joseph Parker. At 20-and-a-half stone, he appeared sluggish and struggled to move through the gears.

Back to back stoppage defeats to Zhilel Zhang have, on this showing, taken something from Joe.

He cannot be happy with his comeback performance, his first fight since losing to Zhang in September, 2023. It was a tepid, poor watch for fans.

With Joyce struggling to find form, Ali had a chance of pulling off an upset, yet seemed reluctant to go for broke. He’d retreat to corners, rather than try to boss the action, and sling single shots.

He connected with an over-hand right in the second and another in the fourth. Joyce shrugged them off, upped the anti from the seventh, landed hurtful left hooks to the body and gained the knockout in the dying seconds. By then, Kash was close to exhaustion.

Ali can take positives from defeat. He extended a world rated heavy and his grit has further healed the reputational damage caused by his 2019 loss to David Price. On that infamous night, he was slung out for biting.

As for Joyce, he’s back in business, but, at 38, he looks a boxer whose best days are behind him.