By Tim Royner: Heavyweight contender Joe Joyce (6-0, 6 KOs) has big goals for 2019 in targeting highly ranked Luis ‘King Kong’ Ortiz, Dominic Breazeale and Adam Kownacki. According to Joyce’s manager Sam Jones, he wants those three heavyweights next year. If the 33-year-old Joyce can accomplish his manager’s goal of facing and beating all three of those top heavyweight in 2019, he’ll be in position to challenge for a world title as early as 2020.
It would be a crazy idea for Joyce’s management to put him in with Luis Ortiz right now. Ortiz is an advanced heavyweight for Joyce to be fighting right now, but if he’s willing to risk everything in facing him, then it’s a fight that would be interesting to see for the boxing public. There’ a lot to gain for Joyce taking on Ortiz. If he defeats the Cuban, he’ll be pushed to the top of the heavyweight rankings almost immediately. But if he loses, then it’s a huge setback for his career and it would take a while to get back to where he previously was in the rankings.
2016 Olympic Silver medalist Joyce (6-0, 6 KOs) will be fighting Joe Hanks (23-2, 15 KOs) in a 10 round fight next month on December 1 on the undercard of World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder’s title defense against Tyson Fury on Showtime at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California.
Let me make this very clear Joe is ready for the big fights this what he’s in boxing for he wanted Gerald Washington.he didn’t want to fight . Joe hanks is now the opponent after this I promise you all we want Luis Ortiz Kownacki Brazeale There all getting it next year #TeamJoyce
— Sam Jones (@mrsamjones88) November 9, 2018
Joyce was hoping to lure former heavyweight world title challenger Gerald Washington (19-2-1, 12 KOs) to fight him on the December 1 card, but the fight couldn’t be put together. It would have been a good one, but the 35-year-old Hanks might be just as good as the 6’6″ Washington. Hanks isn’t as well known as Washington though, and that’s a problem.
Here is the target list for Joyce and his chances of getting them to face him in 2019:
– Dominic Breazeale: This is a very unlikely option for Joyce. Breazeale (19-1, 16 KOs) is the mandatory challenger to World Boxing Council champion Wilder, so he’s probably not going to be interested in facing Joyce. That fight would be too risky for the 6’7″ Breazeale to take at this point. Thats not to say that Breazeale wouldn’t have a chance of beating Joyce. It’s more of a statement that he wouldn’t want to take a needless risk at this point.
– Luis ‘King King’ Ortiz: Out of all the fights that Joyce wants in 2019, this fight be the most doable one for him. Ortiz (29-1, 25 KOs). Ortiz, 39, has shown that he’ willing to fight the best to get ahead. The only thing we don’t know is if his management would be willing to throw him in with the 6’6″ Joyce for a fight that could potentially be a tough one for him. Still, if it were up to Ortiz, he would likely take the fight with Joyce so that he could increase his popularity while waiting for another title shot against Wilder.
– Adam Kownacki: This is not a fight that will be happening in 2019 for Joyce Kownacki (18-0, 14 KOs) is a good fighter with power and talent, but his management isn’t going to agree to put him in with a dangerous puncher like Joyce. With Kownwacki so close to a title shot, he’s not going to do Joyce any favors by giving him a fight right now. Kownacki is ranked #6 IBF and #8 WBC. He needs to get a few more solid wins under his belt before he gets a title shot. Unfortunately for Joyce, he’s not someone that is in the picture for him.
Joyce has put together some nice wins recently in defeating Iago Kiladze, Ivica Bacurin and Lenroy Thomas in his last three fights. The victories showed that Joyce is a force to be reckoned with in the heavyweight division.
for now, Joyce needs to concentrate on his fight against Joe Hanks on December 1. Losing that fight would be unthinkable. Joyce needs to beat Hanks and look good in the process. Every win from this point on needs to be an impressive one for Joyce to keep moving ahead to get ranked highly enough to become a mandatory. It’s unlikely that Joyce will be given a voluntary title shot by any of the champions due to his size, power and the fact that he’s not with the same promoter at them. Ideally, Joyce vs. Anthony Joshua would be the fight that would be great one for him. Joshua and Joyce are both from the UK, and there would be a lot of money to make in that fight for Joe. However, Joshua’s promoter Eddie Hearn isn’t going to do Joshua any favors by giving him a title shot without him under his Matchroom Boxing banner.