Joe Joyce stepped on the scale Friday afternoon at his lowest weight in nearly four years.

The chiseled 6-foot-6 heavyweight officially weighed 256 pounds for his fight against huge Chinese contender Zhang Zhilei on Saturday night at Copper Box Arena in London. Joyce weighed in at 271¼ pounds for his last fight, an 11th-round knockout of Joseph Parker 6½ months ago.

Joyce hasn’t been this light since he weighed 256 pounds for his 12-round, unanimous-decision victory over Bryant Jennings in July 2019 at O2 Arena in London.

Zhilei, who also stands 6-foot-6, got on the British Boxing Board of Control’s scale at 278 pounds, only one pound more than he weighed for his previous bout.

London’s Joyce (15-0, 14 KOs) will defend his WBO interim championship against Zhilei (24-1-1, 19 KOs) in their main event. Joyce also will risk his status as the mandatory challenger for one of the heavyweight titles owned by Ukraine’s Oleksandr Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs).

Joyce, 37, became the first fighter to knock out Parker, a former WBO champ, in his last fight. The 2016 Olympic silver medalist dropped Parker (31-3, 21 KOs) with a left hook in the 11th round and New Zealand’s Parker couldn’t get up in time to beat referee Steve Gray’s count September 24 at AO Arena in Manchester, England.

Most sportsbooks have made Joyce at least a 9-1 favorite to beat Zhilei, a 2008 Olympic silver medalist.

Zhilei, 39, suffered his first professional loss in his most recent action. The strong southpaw scored a first-round knockdown against Filip Hrgovic, hurt Hrgovic again in the sixth round and appeared to land the more impactful punches than the Croatian contender during their 12-round IBF elimination match.

All three judges – Leszek Jankowiak (115-112), Pawel Kardyni (114-113) and Robin Taylor (115-112) – still scored their competitive fight for Hrgovic (15-0, 12 KOs).

The official weights for some of the Joyce-Zhilei undercard bouts that will be televised or streamed are listed below. Additional fighters will weigh in later today.

BT Sport 1 (United Kingdom, Ireland)

7 p.m. BST

ESPN+ (United States)

3 p.m. EDT; 12 p.m. PDT

Denzel Bentley (17-2-1, 14 KOs), London, 159¾ pounds vs. Kieran Smith (18-1, 7 KOs), Greenrigg, Scotland, 159¾ pounds, 12 rounds for the British Boxing Board of Control middleweight title.

Sam Noakes (10-0, 10 KOs), Maidstone, England, 134½ pounds vs. Karthik Sathish Kumar (10-0, 4 KOs), Chennai, India, 134 pounds, 12 rounds, lightweights.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.