The man of the moment in the heavyweight division has had his say on what looks to be Tyson Fury’s next fight – and he’s not impressed.
Joe Joyce has been rightly praised following his KO victory over Joseph Parker. It was a performance that announced the big man as a genuine threat in the division, cemented the talk of his stamina, and confirmed all the stories about his punch resistance.
Now the WBO Interim Champion, ‘The Juggernaut’s sights have turned to titles. To get his hands on one, he’ll have to face either Oleksandr Usyk or Tyson Fury. As Usyk rests and supports the troops in his home country of Ukraine, Fury is gearing up to announce a fight in December. Rumour has it, it’ll be a third with Derek Chisora. Joyce isn’t impressed, as he pointed out to the Metro.
“It is a dead fight! Chisora is going to get his head jabbed off again or Fury will take him out even sooner [than he did in 2014]. But you know what you are getting with Chisora, he will look to make it a war. He will try make it hard work but he is probably going to lose.”
Moving on to his own potential fight with Fury, Joyce is convinced that it would be levels above in terms of competitiveness. After all, ‘The Gypsy King’ did recently call him the second best heavyweight in the world, although then said that he would need to up his profile before they could meet in the ring – pointing out that his wife, Paris, had more followers than Joyce.
“If people want to watch two proper heavyweights go at it in all action fight, throwing everything, that is the fight. I guess I do need to break into that mainstream audience a bit more. But I’m sure when I knock out all these other guys people will continue to take note and as my success grows, my following will grow with it.”
“It’s Fury, isn’t it? But I have got a lot of time for him and his family. He knows boxing very well. I guess he watched that fight against Parker and saw something. He rated my performance and now he is seeing first-hand what difficulties I would present to him. That is why he is giving this honest opinion saying I am top two. They know boxing. And of course, it will be a great fight when it happens.”
Whatever happens, plenty of eyes in the heavyweight division are on Joyce now – and all this talk certainly helps plant the seed for a fight with Fury.