Joe Joyce and Michael 'Venom' Page successful on professional debuts
Friday 20 October 2017 23:55, UK
Olympic silver medallist Joe Joyce opened his professional boxing career with an eighth-round stoppage of Ian Lewison at indigo at The O2 on Friday.
Joyce, narrowly beaten by Frenchman Tony Yoka in the super-heavyweight final at Rio 2016, put Lewison (12-3-1-KO8) under almost constant pressure and badly damaged his opponent's right eye before sealing victory on a card promoted by David Haye's Hayemaker team.
The long-time amateur star had the better of the opening two rounds, doing most of his best work from distance and making full use of his clear height and reach advantage.
Lewison did have some fleeting early success, mainly when Joyce came inside and dropped his guard, but he never appeared to seriously trouble the 32-year-old professional debutant and spent much of the third round against the ropes under plenty of pressure.
That pattern was repeated in the fourth, with Lewison looking badly troubled around both eyes and regularly having to blink to re-focus - the ringside doctor had to clear him before coming out for the fifth.
Joyce sat back a little for the next two rounds and Lewison was on the deck early in the eighth, although it was nothing to do with a punch from his opponent as he slipped over looking to land a big shot.
But later in the eighth the fight was all over with Lewison's legs buckling twice under another assault from Joyce and trainer Don Charles threw in the towel to save him further punishment.
Earlier, Michael 'Venom' Page made an explosive start to his professional boxing career with a third-round stoppage of Spain's Jonathan Castano.
Castano (2-11-1-KO2) barely landed a glove on MMA fighter Page in seven minutes before he was knocked down in spectacular fashion in the light-heavyweight clash.
Page landed flush with a delicious right hand and although, to his credit, Castano narrowly beat the count and got to his feet, he was not allowed to continue by the referee.
A third pro debutant - Scottish amateur star Willy Hutchison - made light work of Attila Tibor Nagy and stopped the Hungarian in just over a minute after landing a barrage of heavy shots.
