Joe Joyce realizes he could’ve chosen a safer opponent than Zhang Zhilei.

The unbeaten WBO interim heavyweight champion is already the mandatory challenger for one of Oleksandr Usyk’s four championships. The better business move might’ve been for Joyce (15-0, 14 KOs) to stay busy by boxing someone less dangerous than China’s Zhilei (24-1-1, 19 KOs), who dropped and pushed unbeaten Croatian contender Filip Hrgovic in his last fight, a debatable 12-round, unanimous-decision defeat August 20 in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Joyce discussed his curious choice with Queensberry Promotions’ Dev Sahni during an interview posted to the YouTube channel of Frank Warren’s company.

“It is a hard fight, yeah,” Joyce said. “It is a risky fight as well, especially considering I’ve got the WBO interim [title].”

London’s Joyce will have to wait, however, for Ukraine’s Usyk to make mandatory defenses against Daniel Dubois (WBA) and, if Usyk defeats Dubois, Filip Hrgovic (IBF) to get his title shot. The 6-foot-6, 270-pound Joyce wanted to make what he considers wise use of his time while awaiting that championship chance by facing a left-handed opponent because Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) is a southpaw and WBC champ Tyson Fury (33-0-1, 24 KOs) sometimes fights from a southpaw stance.

“He’s a good southpaw, so it helps if I fight a good southpaw in the lead up to like maybe a Usyk or maybe a Fury,” Joyce said. “I mean, maybe, if it happens, when it happens, maybe it happens, hopefully it happens.”

The 37-year-old Joyce hasn’t boxed a southpaw since he knocked out Lenroy Thomas (then 22-4-1) in his fourth professional fight. Nearly five years after Joyce beat Thomas in May 2018 at O2 Arena in London, “The Juggernaut” understands that he’ll oppose a more dangerous, diverse left-handed opponent Saturday night.

“Obviously, early on in the fight,” Joyce said, “I’m gonna have to really watch out because, yeah, some big left or rights [will be] coming at me.”

Joyce isn’t counting on the 6-foot-6, 280-pound Zhilei wearing down during the later rounds, though that is the knock against the Chinese contender.

“He’s been swimming, he’s been training hard,” Joyce said, “so I don’t know what version of Zhang is gonna turn up on Saturday night. But it’s gonna be a dangerous one.”

Joyce wouldn’t identify Zhilei as his most imposing opponent, but he expects to battle an aggressive, hungry challenger who knows, at 39, this could be his last legitimate chance to secure a world title shot.

“He’s obviously gonna try and knock me out, so it’s gonna be, you know, risky and hairy at times,” Joyce said. “But I believe I’m gonna get the job done. I’ve got faith in my abilities and my juggernaut-ness.”

BT Sport 1 will air Joyce-Zhilei as a main event in the United Kingdom and Ireland (7 p.m. BST). ESPN+ will stream it in the United States, where undercard coverage is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. EDT.

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