Poor Joe B getting totally disheartened? Admiration often expressed for his opponent (2,5,1,5,3)

'totally disheartened? admiration often expressed for his opponent' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether this works.

'poor joe b getting' is the wordplay.
I cannot really see how this works, but
'b' is found in the answer.
'getting' could be 're' (I've seen this in other clues) and 're' is found within the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...