By Jeff Aranow: Heavyweight prospect Joe ‘Juggernaut’ Joyce (5-0, 5 KOs) will be facing 32-year-old Iago Kiladze (26-3, 18 KOs) in an eight round fight on September 30 on Premier Boxing Champions on FS1 and Fox Deportes at the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, California. Joyce-Kiladze will be taking place on the Victor Ortiz vs. John Molina Jr. card. As bad as that fight is, there’s a good chance that Joyce vs. Kiladze outshines it. Ortiz is a little past it at age 31.
Joyce is now trained by Abel Sanchez at Big Bear, California. Sanchez is the mastermind behind middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin’s great career.
Joyce needs some good wins under his belt for him to get moved rapidly up the heavyweight rankings. Kiladze is a decent opponent for Joyce, but he needs better quality guys than this for him to eventually get moved to No.1 in the heavyweight division. Joyce needs one good win over someone like Adam Kownacki or Bryant Jennings to get a top five ranking at heavyweight. However, the management for those fighters are unlikely to let Joyce get anywhere near those fighters. He’s too good for them to chance it.
2016 Olympic Super heavyweight Silver medalist Joyce is being moved quickly with his handlers to get him in position for a world title shot in the future. The 6’6” Joyce is getting a late start with his career. He’s 32-years-old, so can’t be moved at slow increments like other prospects.
Joyce has looked good in his last three fights in stopping Ivican Bacurin, Lenroy Thomas and Donnie Palmer. None of them were able to make it past the 2nd round against Joyce. Only one of Joyce’s five opponents has gone beyond the 2nd round and that’s journeyman Ian lewison last October. Joyce stopped Lewison in the 8th round. What was interesting about that fight was the fact that Joyce mainly used his left hand for the entire fight. Joyce only sparingly used his right hand, and he was still able to finish Lewison in the 8th round. In Lewison’s fight before that, he was stopped in the 10th round by Dillian Whyte. The comparison between how Joyce and Whyte dealt with the same fighter can only lead boxing fans to one conclusion; Joyce is a better fighter than Whyte. Had Joyce used both hands ago Lewison, he likely would have knocked him out with two or three rounds.
The Georgian born Kiladze, 32, is coming off of back to back losses to Michael Hunter and Adam Kownacki. Kiladze was also stopped in the 2nd round by the hard hitting Youri Kayembre Kalenga in June 2013. Kiladze hasn’t looked as effective since moving up from cruiserweight to the heavyweight division in 2015. As a cruiserweight, Kiladze was a good fighter with only one loss on his record since turning pro in 2007. Kiladze has past wins over Jozeft Nagy and Ismail Abdoul. Those are good fighters. Kiladze is more suited to the cruiserweight division than he is for heavyweight. Michael Hunter stopped Kiladze in the 5th round on June 10, and the hard-hitting Adam Kownacki knocked him out in six rounds last January. If Joyce can stop Kiladze faster than Hunter and Kownacki did, it would say something about him.