There is only one fight left for Joe Joyce in boxing. That’s a rematch of his 2016 Olympic final.
Next weekend the 2016 Rio silver medallist will face Derek Chisora, 40, in what will no doubt be an entertaining heavyweight scuffle yet hardly an elite meeting. Joyce, at 38, doesn’t really have time to be mixing it around with the likes of an aged and over the hill Chisora.
But unfortunately that’s the turn his career in the paid ranks has taken. When Joyce beat Daniel Dubois in 2020 and followed it up with wins over Carlos Takam and Joseph Parker he was on the verge of world title shots.
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Yet it was Dubois who went there first, losing to Oleksandr Usyk and rebuilding quickly to now be headlining Wembley Stadium in an IBF title clash with Anthony Joshua.
It’s where Joyce believed he would be one day. Sharing the spotlight with the man he followed in the footsteps of to go all the way to the Olympic final.
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But back-to-back defeats by Chinese man mountain Zhilei Zhang sent him down the pecking order while Dubois passed him as if they were playing snakes and ladders.
There’s a feeling that those big fights may have passed Joyce by given his age and the fact he looked laboured in his return victory against Kash Ali.
What will beating Chisora show us? Very little. Chisora is what he is. Not even a gatekeeper now.
He’s more like those annoying temporary traffic lights that keep popping up on every road seemingly these days. Delays your progress but easily passable after a few minutes.
(Image: PA)
World titles may not be possible for an ageing Joyce but there is one fight he should be given before he’s led away from the mad house that is boxing.
That’s Frenchman Tony Yoka. His Olympic final ‘conqueror’. Joyce was harshly denied gold in the 2016 decider against Yoka if you’re being generous to the man handed the win.
If Joyce’s professional career has stalled, Yoka’s never got going. There was an anti-doping suspension for missing three tests and now three defeats on the spin.
(Image: Getty Images)
The French fighter will be out on the same night as Joyce next weekend but bizarrely at the Tolworth Recreation Centre.
Joyce may not be getting Wembley Stadium and Joshua but the O2 is still a lot better than a sports hall off the A3 in Surbiton.
Still neither man is going to reach the top so the only logical conclusion is for them to meet in the paid ranks.
Joyce gets his rematch and should get revenge then he can walk away with that glory, even if heavyweight titles avoid him.