Joe Joyce: “Usyk doesn’t want to fight me, he says I’m a tank”

By Barry Holbrook: Joe Joyce is in a tough spot with neither of the world champions, Oleksandr Usyk & Tyson Fury, wanting anything to do with fighting him.

Presently, Joyce (15-0, 14 KOs) holds the interim WBO heavyweight title, and he’s mandatory with the organization for the belt IBF/WBA/WBO champion Usyk holds. However, Joyce says Usyk (20-0, 13 KOs) because of his “tank” battling style.

Unfortunately, Joyce is behind WBA mandatory and IBF mandatory Felip Hrgovic in the rotation system for him to get a guaranteed title shot against Usyk, meaning he won’t get a chance to fight for the WBO belt until after those two battles for a crown.

Ideally, Joyce could get his shot next year as long as Usyk or whoever holds the WBO belt fights more than once in 2024. If not, Joyce will be waiting until 2025 for his shot.

With Joyce turning 38 in September, he could be 40 years old by the time he gets his turn to compete for a belt. That won’t be a problem if Joyce ages well in the next couple of years, but a lot of changes in a fighter. Look at Fury. He’s physically aged in the last two years and has lost the mobility that he once had.

Joshua went downhill from the fighter he was in 2017 to getting blasted out by the unheralded fringe contender Andy Ruiz Jr in 2019, who was brought in as a substitute.

“I want to make a name for myself, and I want to be a world champion. I just need to be number one,” Joe Joyce said to BBC Sport. “Fury said he wants to fight me, so I can fight him after the Usyk fight.

“Then, for bants, I can fight [Anthony] Joshua or [Deontay] Wilder,” said Joyce.

Eddie Hearn isn’t about to let Joshua fight Joyce because as mentally fragile as AJ looked against his last opponent Jermaine Franklin, he wouldn’t stand a ghost of a chance against ‘The Juggernaut.’

“The natural fight would be to fight Usyk,” Joyce said. “[Usyk] doesn’t want to fight me because he says I’m a tank.”

“I’d like to fight Fury. Fury’s mentioned my name and said I’m the number two heavyweight. Let’s make that fight,” said Joyce.

The ‘Juggernaut’ should forget about fighting Fury because he’s heading for retirement and wants the big fights against Joshua or Usyk.

If Fury isn’t fighting those guys, he’ll mix in an hors d’oeuvre-level fighter like Chisora or Whyte, but not with any ability or chance of beating him.