By Jake Tiernan: Joe Joyce says Anthony Joshua has regressed as a fighter, and he feels he’s “overtaken him” at this stage of his career. However, Joyce (15-0, 14 KOs) believes Joshua won’t fight him and will take a winnable one against Dillian Whyte next.
Joyce says that with the way Joshua (25-3, 22 KOs) looked against Jermaine Franklin last weekend, he’d have knocked both out.
‘The Juggernaut’ Joyce feels that the 33-year-old AJ is fighting similarly as he did in his rematch with Andy Ruiz Jr in December 2019, throwing only single shots. Joshua has a new trainer, Derrick James, but he failed to show any improvements in his game.
Before hiring Derrick as the replacement for his previous coach Robert Garcia, Joshua had looked timid, throwing single shots only and not fighting with the intensity he once had before his loss to Ruiz. Unfortunately, Joshua looked the same as before hooking up with Derrick.
“I’d knock both of them out with their performance the other night,” said Joyce to Sky Sports about Joshua’s win over Franklin. “I’d definitely force a stoppage on Franklin and Joshua’s ripe for the picking.
“He seems to have gone, in my opinion, a bit backwards. Hasn’t progressed,” Joyce observed in AJ’s performance.
“He was [throwing] single shots and boxed kind of like he did in the [Andy] Ruiz second fight. He lacked the combinations.
“I was always trying to catch up with him, but now I’ve overtaken him. I haven’t caught up to him financially yet, so I need to have those big fights. I’m a threat, and he would prefer that [Whyte fight],” Joyce said.
Given the 37-year-old Joyce’s age, it’s unrealistic for him to hope to catch up with Joshua in the financial department. The 33-year-old Joshua has a net worth estimated at $80 million.
Joyce’s net worth is estimated at $5 million, and with big-name fighters like Joshua, Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder, and Oleksandr Usyk showing no urgency to fight him, it’s a pipe dream for him to hope of overtaking AJ in personal income.
If boxing were like the UFC, in which the best fight the best, Joyce would get to fight all those guys, but that’s not how it is. Joyce will be lucky to fight one of the top four heavyweights before he hangs up his gloves, and that’ll probably be Usyk.
WBO interim heavyweight champion Joyce is fighting next week against Zhang Zhilei (24-1-1, 19 KOs) in a twelve-round headliner, live on BT Sport at the Copper Box Arena in London, England.