Joe Joyce wants to beat former heavyweight world title challenger Carlos Takam in a more impressive fashion tonight than IBF/WBA champion Anthony Joshua did in October 2017.
Joshua stopped Takam (39-5-1, 28 in the tenth round, but it was far from an impressive victory, thanks in part to referee Phil Edwards coming out of nowhere to pull the plug on the contest to give AJ the win.
The unbeaten Joyce (12-0, 11 KOs) wants to leave no doubt when he faces the 40-year-old Takam tonight in the headliner on BT Sport at the SSE Arena in Wembley.
Joyce, 35, needs to win this fight to hold onto the WBO mandatory position, which he hopes to use to challenge the winner of the September 25th fight between Joshua and Oleksandr Usyk.
That may be hard for Joyce to do, though, because Joshua has already gone on record to say that he wants to battle the winner of the October 9th trilogy match between Deontay ‘The Bronze Bomber’ Wilder and WBC champion Tyson Fury.
Joyce will probably need to stay busy with his career while waiting for the smoke to clear from those fights.
“I want to do better than Joshua did [against Takam] and prove to everyone how good I am, especially for the lead-up,” said Joe Joyce to BT Sport Boxing. “I’m very interested in their [Anthony Joshua vs. Oleksandr Usyk] fight.”
For starters, Joyce needs to focus on just coming out victorious against the hard-hitting Takam. If Joyce gets careless going for a knockout tonight, he could run into something from Takam and wind up getting stopped.
Takam gave Joshua something to think about before their fight was stopped prematurely in the tenth round in 2017.
In Takam’s loss shortly after that to Derek Chisora, he was beating the stuffing out of him before getting clipped with a big right-hand shot to the side of the head in the eighth round that bowled him over.
“I’m very interested in their fight to see who gets the win on the night there, and then you’ve got Wilder-Fury part 3 as well—plenty of action in the heavyweight division.
“Yeah, hopefully,” said Joyce about wanting to fight the winner of the Joshua vs. Usyk fight at the Emirates Stadium in London in 2022.
The winner of the Fury-Wilder fight will take on the Joshua-Usyk winner in February of next year. It won’t be surprising if we see a rematch between those guys.
If Joshua and Fury fight in February, it’s a no-brainer for them to run it back, even if it’s a blowout contest.
“That would be a great one for the history books, and there is a first time for everything,” said Joyce about wanting to battle Joshua or Usyk at the Emirates Stadium.
That guys a joke.
My 9 yr old son fights better then Joyce. He’s a hack.