Joe Joyce’s manager Sam Jones has ridiculed predictions that his fighter would be knocked out by rival Daniel Dubois in their postponed heavyweight encounter.
Speaking on Queensberry Promotions ‘Lockdown Lowdown’, Jones argued: “Joe has beaten [Mahammadrasul] Majidov, Tony Yoka, Frazer Clarke, Filip Hrgovic. He’s done all of them in the amateurs.
“He beat Bryant Jennings in his last outing…a world class heavyweight who took Wladimir Klitschko 12 rounds. Daniel Dubois has beaten nobody, amateur or professional. That’s just facts.”
Naturally, Jones is backing his man Joyce on the basis of overall experience and a world class amateur pedigree. He believes Dubois isn’t ready for a step-up against a fighter of Joyce’s calibre.
“Joe Joyce is going to have too much experience for him, too much know-how for him,” claimed Jones. “Daniel’s had no inbetween fights. [Kyotaro] Fujimoto to Joe Joyce? You’re taking the piss.
“Let me tell you something now, when I was out in Vegas with Joe he looked unbelievable. I don’t care what the trolls say, Joe Joyce would have beaten Daniel Dubois on 11th April.
“[Daniel’s] not the finished article. I think he’ll be a great fighter down the line, but it’s disrespectful that people write Joe off. [Dubois is] going to get found out. I know who Daniel was planning on sparring in his camp and even that’s disrespectful to Joe. We were sparring undefeated professional heavyweights. We were taking it very seriously.”
Joyce was originally scheduled to fight Dubois in April before the event was delayed due to the coronavirus pandemic. That hasn’t stopped speculation on who Dubois would fight next should he defeat fellow unbeaten Joyce. Dubois’ promoter Frank Warren has claimed he would match his man with recently deposed WBC champion Deontay Wilder though Jones feels that’s another step too far.
“He’s Frank’s baby, isn’t he, Dubois? So Frank’s not going to say, ‘Oh no, Deontay Wilder would take his head off’ but I look at the fight against Richard Lartey – if Daniel Dubois tried to swing arms with Deontay Wilder like that he’d be asleep until the virus is gone,” claimed Jones.
“Joe would fight any man in the world. We’ll wipe out Daniel Dubois, get him out the way and then we want Jarrell Miller. It’s the fight we’ve wanted for ages. It’s personal for Joe. They had a back and forth before so that fight needs to happen. Doesn’t matter where, Baby Miller is next. After that, it’s a world title.
“I would prefer Joe to face Tyson Fury. For the simple reason he’s the king of this era. You want to test yourself against the best. If you’re a professional footballer you want to play against Cristiano Ronaldo, you want to play against Lionel Messi. It’s the same for Joe. If Joe just beats Anthony Joshua, he still wouldn’t be considered number one.”