By Jim Dower: 2016 Olympic super heavyweight silver medalist Joe ‘Juggernaut’ Joyce (6-0, 6 KOs) remained unbeaten with a 5th round knockout win over former cruiserweight Iago Kiladze (26-4, 18 KOs) on Sunday night on Premier Boxing Champions on FS1 at the Citizens Business Bank Arena, Ontario.
The 6’6″ Joyce knocked Kiladze down three times in dropping him in rounds 2, 3 and 5. The bout was stopped after the third knockdown of the contest. The official time of the stoppage was at :41 of round five.
Joyce looked powerful, but slow in chopping away at the smaller, weaker Kiladze with big shots. Kiladze was landing shots himself, but he couldn’t hurt Joyce with the punches he was hitting him with. He lacked the power to do any real damage. Joyce seemed to prolong the fight by boxing Kiladze with a slow jab. The way that Joyce fought, he made the fight tougher than it otherwise should have been.
This was Joyce’s first fight with new trainer Abel Sanchez. It looks like Sanchez has been working on developing Joyce’s boxing. It’s debatable whether it’ll help him when he gets inside the ring with the better heavyweights in the division.
Joyce is one of those George Foreman like heavyweights who does better when he’s slugging it out with his opponents. Joyce needs to fight better opposition than Kiladze for him to get the most out of his career. Joyce is 33-years-old, and he needs to be moved quickly for him to get a title shot in the next two to three years. Joyce has potential to make waves in the heavyweight division, but he’s going to need a good chin for him to beat the solid fighters like Deontay Wilder, Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, Jarrell Miller, Dillian Whyte, Joseph Parker, Adam Kownacki, Kubrat Pulev, Andy Ruiz Jr. and Charles Martin.
In other fights on the card:
Undefeated 2016 Olympian super heavyweight Efe Ajagba (7-0, 6 KOs) knocked out previously unbeaten Nick Jones (7-1, 5 KOs) by a 1st round knockout. The 24-year-old Ajagba dropped Jones with a big right hand late in the round. The referee stopped the fight at that point. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:25 of round one.
Ajagba stalked the smaller Jones around the ring, hitting him with big right hand shots. Jones was able to connect with uppercuts and hooks on the chin of the 6’5″ Ajagba, who took the shots well. It didn’t look good how easily Jones was able to land his shots on Ajagba.
There was nothing wrong with Ajagba’s punching power. His right hand power rivals that of the top level heavyweights in the division like Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder. What Ajagba lacks is hand speed and defense. He seemed to be pushing his punches, and that allowed Jones to see them coming so that he could lean away from them. Ajagba eventually started catching Jones with more and more of them. It didn’t take long for Ajagba to knock Jones out once he started catching him with shots.
Ajagba compares in a lot of ways to Joe Joyce in terms of hand speed and power. The two of them are similar. Joyce is a better mover, and he moves his shots around better. Ajagba was landing largely overhand rights to the head. Joyce likes to throw to both the head and the body, which makes him dangerous.
Undefeated middleweight prospect Joe Spencer (5-0, 5 KO) defeated Cory Mason (0-3) by a 1st round knockout. The fight was halted at 2:36 of round one.
Undefeated featherweight Stephen Fulton (14-0, 6 KOs) beat journeyman German Meraz (61-49-2, 38 KOs) by an eight round unanimous decision. The scores were 80-71, 80-71 and 80-71. Fulton came close to scoring a knockout in dropping Meraz in round eight.
Light flyweight prospect Jesse Rodriguez (7-0, 4 KOs) beat Edwi Reyes (8-4-3, 5 KOs) by an eight round unanimous decision. The scores were 80-72, 80-72 and 79-73.
Undefeated bantamweight Jose Balderas (5-0) beat Ivan Martino (3-3, 3 KOs) by a four round unanimous decision. The judges scores were 40-36, 40-36 and 39-37.
