Joe Joyce has spoken out about a potential fight between Oleksandr Usyk and Daniel Dubois, claiming his his former amateur foe Usyk wants nothing to do with him in the professional ranks.
Joyce faced Usyk in the World Series of Boxing, where the Ukrainian outpointed him over the five round distance.
Usyk now looks set to face WBA mandatory challenger Daniel Dubois next, whilst Joyce – who beat Dubois back in 2020 – takes on Zhilei Zhang at the Copperbox this weekend.
‘The Juggernaut’ expressed his frustrations at the situation when speaking to SecondsOut, and stated Usyk doesn’t want to fight him simply because he’s a “tank.”
“Usyk doesn’t want to fight me because I’m a tank, and now he’s fighting Dubois. It’s crazy.”
“I enjoy boxing and I’m up for the challenges. But when it’s a bit out of your control, it’s frustrating, like when you beat someone but they get a shot before you.”
“But it’s always been like that, it’s nothing new.”
Many felt Joyce would get a shot at Tyson Fury this summer should an undisputed fight between Fury and Usyk fall through, however this seems unlikely to materialise.
Although a world title shot does appear to be the horizon at some point for Joyce, that could all fall apart should he take his eyes of the heavy handed Zhang.
Like Joyce, Zhang is also an Olympic silver medalist and will be more than confident he can spoil the Brit’s plans and catapult himself right into the frame for a world title shot.
‘Big Bang’ lost a controversial decision to Filip Hrgovic on the Usyk-Anthony Joshua 2 undercard last year, and will have every intention of righting that wrong on Saturday night.