Twice-beaten heavyweight contender Joe Joyce has arrived back home after training for his upcoming July 27 fight with fellow Brit Derek Chisora in Las Vegas. Joyce, beaten only by Zhilei Zhang, says he has put the work in for the Chisora fight, saying Chisora “always brings war.”
Fans are braced for an X-rated affair with this one; make no mistake. Both men can be there to be hit and have taken their licks in fights. Both men could go home somewhat damaged after this one. But Joyce says he has lots left to offer, and “The Juggernaut” has a plan: he will beat Chisora and then fight old foe Daniel Dubois again.
Speaking on Frank Warren’s Queensbury Boxing Channel, Joyce, now 38 years of age and sporting a 16-2(15) record, says he believes there is a good chance Dubois will KO Anthony Joshua when the two fight at Wembley on September 21, and that if he does, he will then fight Dubois in a rematch. Joyce, of course, stopped Dubois, this on a pretty gruesome eye injury that forced Dubois to take a knee (the harsher critics say Dubois “quit” in the 2020 fight).
Joyce feels he and Dubois will be hooking up again with the IBF heavyweight title on the line.
“Let’s hope Daniel knocks him out, and then I get to fight him – the end,” Joyce said of the upcoming Joshua-Dubois fight. “I get the rematch, and I beat Daniel again, and I get the titles. Yeah, I think he can [KO Joshua], but they can both bang. I’d like to see who will be the winner there, maybe the best man will win. He [Dubois] is great, he’s great, he’s doing his thing. What does he say about me? Ask him. And you can ask Joshua as well while you’re at it, and maybe Usyk, and Fury, how about Fury? We need to ask them questions.”
In the interview, Joyce’s words and demeanor clearly indicate that he is ready to fight, that he fully believes he has a lot left in the tank, and that he still believes he can become a world champion.
Joyce should beat Chisora, who at 34-13(23) is far more worn than he is. But can Joyce then go on and land a big fight with Dubois? Should Dubois beat AJ and even a Usyk or a Fury? As Joyce says, he wants to ask those fighters questions.
Let’s see how Joyce looks in his movements, as far as his speed of hand and foot, along with his reaction times, and how much snap he has on his punches when he fights Chisora in a couple of weeks. Joyce will be under the microscope in this fight, with critics looking to see if those two heavy stoppage losses to Zhang took too much out of him.
