by Scott Gilfoid: Heavyweight Joe Joyce (4-0, 4 KOs) made quick work of a very nervous looking Commonwealth champion Lenroy Thomas (22-5-1, 10 KOs) in stopping him in the 2nd round on Saturday night after knocking him down three times at the O2 Arena in London, England.
Joyce, 32, dropped Thomas with body shots. That forced the referee Terry O’Connor to halt the fight.
Thomas was doing nothing in the fight but taking shots. The 6’2” Thomas didn’t have the size to reach the 6’6” Joyce nor did he have the work rate. Joyce was unloading on Thomas with nonstop shots. It would have been hard for any heavyweight to deal with the constant incoming from Joyce.
Joyce surprised a lot of boxing fans by wearing a sombrero during his ring walk. It’s unclear whether he’s trying to win over the U.S boxing fans with his performances.
After the fight, Joyce said he wants to fight for the British heavyweight title against the winner of the Sam Sexton vs. Hughie Fury fight. That’s probably a waste of time for Joyce, because he should be looking to fight some of the top contenders. Joyce is about to turn 33, and it’s a waste of time to continue to fight domestic level opposition at his age. Joyce needs to take a page out of 2-time Olympic gold medalist Vasyl Lomachenko’s playbook by going after the top contenders right away. Lomachenlo didn’t waste time fighting domestic level fodder the way Joyce is doing.
”I thought I did a good job,” Joyce said afterwards to Sky Sports. ”Hopefully gave everyone watching here at home a good show. The commonwealth title means a lot. I knew he would be a tricky opponent, but I just used my range and got to him. I’m up for everything. The world is my oyster. I would like to challenge for the British title. It’s a lovely belt,” Joyce said.
It’s too bad Dereck Chisora didn’t fight Joyce tonight, because that would have been a fun fight to watch. Chisora has the punch resistance to last into the later rounds against Joyce. I think it would have resulted in Chisora taking a vicious beating if he’d been the one fighting Joyce instead of Thomas. The 34-year-old Chisora has shown no interest in fighting Joyce, which is totally understandable. Chisora is only 2 years older than Joyce, but he seems much older than that.
The positives from Joyce’s performance tonight were his work rate and punching power. He throws a lot of punches and he hits hard. The negatives for Joyce’s performance was his flat-footed fighting style, his slow hand speed and the fact that he wasn’t bending his legs to get his body behind his shots. Joyce was like a younger version of George Foreman in standing straight up and throwing clubbing shots.
”It was a big step-up and I would have like to see if he went some rounds, what would have happened” Paulie Malignaggi said to Sky Sports about Joe Joyce. ”He was bringing a fast pace and throwing a lot of punches.”
I’d like to see Joyce fight Dillian Whyte, Adam Kownacki, Agit Kabayel, Charles Martin, Johann Duhaupas, Luis Ortiz, Alexander Povetkin or Tony Bellew. I doubt that any of those fights are going to happen anytime soon if ever. Chisora is not an interesting fight because he’s looked so awful lately. Joyce needs to fight guys that still have something left.