Joe Joyce was left frustrated as he watched the man he “beat convincingly”, get a title shot at Oleksander Usyk.
In November of 2020, Joe Joyce moved to a professional record of 12-0. Joyce, a decorated amateur and Olympic silver medallist, out-worked and out-bludgeoned fellow Brit, former Team GB teammate and Queensbury Promotions fighter Daniel Dubois. Joyce was able to win the bout via a tenth round stoppage. An eye injury, caused by being repeatedly punched in the face, caused Dubois serious trouble and in the end, it was too much for Dubois to continue with.
The Trajectory of Daniel Dubois
Since then, the career and trajectory of these two men has been quite bizarre. Dubois, the loser, returned in a WBA Interim heavyweight title clash against Bogdan Dinu. Dubois won via second round KO. A first round TKO followed against Joe Cusumano. Next up was the WBA (Regular) heavyweight title against Trevor Bryan. A trinket that is not a true world title. The true WBA champion was Oleksander Usyk. However, this was an opportunity for Dubois to claim a solid ranking with the WBA. Something that would assist Dubois to move into a mandatory position down the line.
Dubois won the bout via KO in the fourth round. He then defended his ‘title’ in a back and forth, three round slugfest against Kevin Lerena. Dubois went through hell and back but was able to come through successfully.
This now put Dubois in the mandatory position to challenge Oleksander Usyk for the full WBA title, along with the IBF & WBO titles. A body shot in the fifth round, had Dubois convinced her was the newly crowned champion, as Usyk lay on the floor, writhing in clear discomfort. The referee deemed the shot a ‘low blow’ and Usyk was given five minutes to recover. The fight continued and Usyk stopped Dubois in the ninth round after a dominant shutout display.
The Trajectory of Joe Joyce
Meanwhile, following his victory of Dubois, Joe Joyce took on former world title challenger Carlos Takam. Joyce stopped Takam in round six. He then moved on to a fourth round TKO over Christian Hammer before challenging former world champion, Joseph Parker. Joyce rallied and stopped Parker in the eleventh round to claim the interim WBO heavyweight title.
The title did the same for Joyce with the WBO as it had done for Dubois, with the WBA. Both now sat in a mandatory position to face Oleksander Usyk, in the event that the unification bout with Tyson Fury fell apart. Wanting to remain active, Joe Joyce decided to take on top heavyweight contender Zhilei Zhang.
Zhang however, didn’t appear to have gotten the memo. Joyce’s ‘tick-over’ fight backfired in a huge way, as Zhang did to Joyce, what Joyce had done to Dubois. Heavy left hooks, landed repeatedly, had closed Joyce’s eye. Joyce was willing to continue but the referee decided otherwise and called a halt to proceedings in round six.
Dubois Gets His Shot
Joyce was now out of the title picture, at least for the time being. Had he defeated Zhang, with a decorated promotor in Frank Warren behind him, Joyce may well have got the shot at Usyk next. However, whilst Zhang lacked the promotional backing and was ruled out due to Joe Joyce triggering his rematch clause, the door was left open for Daniel Dubois.
Despite Joe Joyce defeating Daniel Dubois handily, he was forced to sit back and reflect on how these events had unfolded. Dubois, had beaten a very low level of competition since his defeat to Joyce. Joyce himself, had beaten a former world title challenger, a former world champion and Christian Hammer. Hammer, the lowest rated of those three opponents, for the record, would been favoured to beat all of Dubois opponents.
Yet here Joe Joyce sat. On the back of his very first defeat as a professional, watching a man, who he beat convincingly. A man who hadn’t really beaten anybody of note, get a title shot before him.
Joe Joyce Admits “It Bothers Me”
Speaking to Boxing Scene, Joyce said, “It was frustrating that it was the guy I beat convincingly that got the shot before me. And it bothers me that I was once the WBA gold champion and paid the sanctioning fees, and then I was completely out of that. That’s a route I could’ve taken, but I did the WBO route and I’m in that position again. But to have to lose to Zhang, when I was so close and I could’ve just waited and took a different shot, it was quite a hard time and lesson to learn.”
Joyce, aged 38, claimed that the reason they had insisted on the rematch clause was because he didn’t have time, at his age, to rebuild, but that an immediate rematch, should he be victorious, would put him right back in the mix.
Joyce continued, “I don’t really have time to piece my way back another way, so I have to. Because I could’ve had a fight in the meantime. Someone could’ve fought Zhang instead or Zhang could’ve had that opportunity at the WBO title. But this is why I enacted the immediate rematch clause, so I can get back into position.”
Revenge over Zhang would put Joe Joyce within touching distance of a world title once more, defeat, may see Joyce walk away from the sport, as the reality of achieving a lifelong dream, fades into the distance.
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Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images
