By Charles Brun: Joe Joyce plans on fighting twice in 2023, starting with a stay-busy clash in March against a likely southpaw before taking on the winner of the Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk heavyweight championship fight in the summer.
Whether Joyce (15-0, 14 KOs) gets his hoped-for title shot against the Fury-Usyk winner in the summer seems highly doubtful, as it’s more likely that whoever emerges from that fight will immediately attempt to line a big-money bout against Anthony Joshua.
I hate to say it, but Joyce’s best and perhaps only shot at fighting for a world title in 2023 is if the Fury vs. Usyk fight falls through, which means that Tyson (33-0-1, 24 KOs) would need a dance partner.
It’s still questionable how eager the 6’9″ Fury is in facing the rugged 2016 Olympic silver medalist because that fight would mean 12 grueling rounds of pain for the flabby-bellied ‘Gypsy King’ and I don’t think he would want to get hit repeatedly by the heavy-handed Juggernaut.
Given that Fury allowed Joyce to come into the ring and talk about a fight between them after his recent victory over the 38-year-old journeyman Derek Chisora on December 3rd means that he’s going to look like a coward if he dodges the Juggernaut to take another soft touch if his fight with Usyk falls through.
“I’m planning to fight in March while all the others [Fury & Usyk] are taking a fight,” the ‘Juggernaut’ Joe Joyce said to Sky Sports.
“For the summer one [I’ll] go for a big one, like Usyk or Fury. I’ll be ready because I’ll have had one at the beginning of the year to get me going.”
Fury hit the deck four times in his three fights with Deontay Wilder, and he was very lucky that the referees that worked two of those fights didn’t halt the contest when he was down.
“I don’t understand why people do that,” Joyce said about fighters that choose to sit inactive, waiting for their title shots. “It makes them rusty for when they do get the shot and also their skills as well. It is entertainment, not just letting me hold on to my ‘0.’
“Fury switches southpaw, and Usyk’s a southpaw, so that it would be a good idea,” Joyce said about thinking it’s a good idea that he face a southpaw in March for his first fight in 2023.