Joe Joyce’s comeback fight ended in bizarre fashion as the veteran British heavyweight lost to Artem Suslenkov in Moscow.
The 40-year-old was facing undefeated Russian Suslenkov in his first fight since losing to Filip Hrgovic in April 2025.
But after looking lethargic and lacking power throughout, Joyce appeared to signal that he no longer wanted to fight in the 11th round and stepped backwards.
Joyce offered little defence as Suslenkov, 30, landed a few more blows before the referee stepped in to stop the fight.
Joyce, a silver medallist at the 2016 Olympics, now has a professional record of 16 wins and five losses, with all of those defeats coming in his last six fights.
The highlight of Joyce’s professional career came in 2022, when he beat Joseph Parker to win the vacant WBO interim heavyweight title.
Joyce then faced Zhilei Zhang twice in 2023, but lost his unbeaten record in the first meeting and was stopped in the rematch.
After losing to Hrgovic, Joyce’s promoter Frank Warren said his man needed to have a “real serious think about the future”.
Despite Joyce having said he spent 12 months preparing to fight again and that he was “excited for the opportunity” to face Suslenkov, who improved his record to 15-0, some now fear this could be the end of his boxing career.
Anthony Fowler, a Great Britain team-mate at Rio 2016, said on X: “What a sad end to Joe’s career. It’s a shame to see him go out like that.”
Joyce’s fight was on the undercard of Russian Murat Gassiev’s first defence of the WBA heavyweight title.
Gassiev, who was elevated to WBA champion after Oleksandr Usyk vacated his three heavyweight belts last month, was scheduled to face Tony Yoka.
Joyce was touted as a possible stand-in after the Frenchman pulled out with injury, but Peter Kadiru was confirmed last week and Gassiev stopped the German in the sixth round to improve to 34 wins and two losses.