British heavyweight boxer Joe Joyce is racing toward a world title shot
Former world champion Bermane Stiverne may have questioned the audacity of the man with only seven professional bouts to his name daring to challenge him, but Britain's Joe Joyce is showing no signs of nerves as he relaxes in his hotel between the O2 Arena and river Thames just days before their heavyweight showdown.
While his short professional career may appear to be a sign of inexperience, the reality is that Joyce has already fought on some of boxing’s biggest stages and has become accustomed to the pressure and tribulations the sport can bring.
A Commonwealth and European gold medallist, the man who goes by the nickname “The Juggernaut” only started boxing at 22 and remained amateur into his thirties to compete for Olympic gold in 2016, only to finish with a “bittersweet” silver.
Now, aged 33, Joyce is determined to make up for lost time. He has already amassed seven knockout wins over the past year-and-a-half and has set himself a similarly testing schedule for 2019 in which he wants to face a further four or five opponents – after dealing with Stiverne this weekend.
Fighting on the fringe
“I'm ready and, the age I am, I need to keep moving into the right fights and whichever fights are going to push me up in the rankings,” Joyce tells City A.M. “Fighting the fringe level contenders and getting closer to winning a version of the world title early next year.”
His next opponent is former WBC heavyweight champion Stiverne who, despite being 40, would be a significant scalp on just his eighth outing. They will be the final fight before James DeGale faces Chris Eubank Jr at London's O2 Arena on Saturday night.
For the second consecutive fight, Joyce is on the undercard for a blockbuster clash, having fought before Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder's bout in Los Angeles last December.
That victory in the United States means he has achieved something fellow Londoner and current unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua hasn't — a fact he is happy to highlight.
“He's going to copy me and go and box in New York,” Joyce jokes, referring to Joshua’s next fight, against Jarrell Miller at Madison Square Garden in June. “He's branching out.”
One of the key reasons behind the 6ft 6ins, 18-stone Joyce’s recent high calibre bills is the team he has around him.
Having initially signed to David Haye's team in a co-promotional agreement, he later joined the influential Richard Schaefer full-time and moved to the US in order to accelerate the growth of his reputation.
The A-Team
He is also now advised by Al Haymon, who previously worked with Floyd Mayweather, and coached by Abel Sanchez, who has trained a number of world champions including Gennady Golovkin.
“Sanchez has a system, a winning formula. When I first got there I was training with Triple G [Golovkin], [Murat] Gassiev,” Joyce explains. “He's trained like 19 world champions or something like that, the track record speaks for itself. I could be No20.”
One of the unique aspects of training with Sanchez is his base in Big Bear Lake, California. A cold, high-altitude camp in a small city in the San Bernardino Mountains, it is specifically designed for boxers and allows them to improve their conditioning while minimising distractions from the outside world.
“You have to be a certain type of person to live up there and train at that velocity,” says Joyce, who has a degree in Fine Art and paints in his increasingly rare spare time. “Some boxers can't hack it, training so hard and the altitude and you are away from everything. You have to just get on and feel like you aren't trapped.”
The quality of the team he has attracted suggests they have seen something in Joyce. Stiverne is a viable enough threat to his undefeated record to catch the headlines should he win, but a test that Sanchez is confident his apprentice will come through.
Making a statement
Joyce agrees. The Haitian-born Stiverne went 12 rounds with current WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder back in 2015 but ultimately lost the belt before he was “violently” beaten, as Joyce puts it, in a short-lived rematch two years later. He hasn't fought since.
“I want to win. I'd like to take him out early if possible and make a statement,” Joyce says. “Obviously I'm going to be compared to Wilder so I want to put on a good performance.”
It is hard to know what kind of shape Stiverne is in after a two-year hiatus, but it is clear that Joyce is taking his opponent seriously as he avoids trash-talking the American.
Although humble, his confidence is apparent, with plans for the future already under way. His team are already plotting next opponents as Joyce targets joining Joshua, Wilder and Fury in the division’s upper echelons.
“I'll have a couple weeks’ rest and then I’ll be back in Big Bear training again, potentially for another fight on Wilder and Fury's [rematch] undercard,” he says.
Luis Ortiz is one name on Joyce's wishlist for this year. Having recently suffered defeats to Wilder and Joshua, he would make an ideal candidate to elevate the 33-year-old's worth.
While there are question marks over what Stiverne can offer on Saturday night, Joyce can take solace in knowing that his opponent did not win his first world title until 35.
For Joyce, the real battle to reach his goal of a world title may be against time. He will have to live up to his Juggernaut nickname if he is to get there.
Tickets available from www.AXS.com and Inner Ringside/VIP Hospitality from www.sportandmusic.co.uk. This fight will be shown exclusively on ITV Box Office. More info at www.itvboxoffice.com