Joe Joyce is pushing for a major championship fight with Tyson Fury or Oleksandr Usyk later this year; Meanwhile, he'd like Frazer Clarke to exact some revenge on Olympic rival Tony Yoka for him; Plus Joyce explains why the Joseph Parker win was his breakout moment
Wednesday 1 March 2023 06:40, UK
After a breakout win over Joseph Parker last year, Joe Joyce expects to fight for a world title in 2023.
But, while he's occupied with that target, he wants former amateur rival and ex-GB team-mate Frazer Clarke to exact some revenge on his behalf.
Joyce lost a highly controversial decision to France's Tony Yoka in the 2016 Olympic final. Yoka, now a professional boxer too, fights Carlos Takam in Paris on March 11, live on Sky Sports.
Clarke won a super-heavyweight bronze medal at the following Olympic Games last year and will now be looking to go 6-0 as a pro on March 25 in Manchester.
Joyce would like to see Clarke box Yoka later.
"Please Frazer, beat Yoka up!" Joyce said.
"That's a potential fight down the line," Joyce told Sky Sports.
"I'm happy Frazer's come through now and he's starting to get to work and pick his way up. Even a fight with Yoka, he could beat up Yoka for me!
"There's some good fights. I'd like to see him against Fabio Wardley [the British champion], there's Sol Dacres, Nathan Gorman. They're even fights he could have quite soon, they're interesting fights on the way up for him."
Those are the kind of fights that would carry Clarke towards a potential fight with Joyce too. They boxed several times in the amateurs and Joyce could see them renewing that rivalry in the pros.
Although Joyce won all their amateur encounters, he says Clarke became an increasingly difficult opponent and would still be formidable as a pro.
"The first fight it was an easy win, I stopped him, his eye swelled up. But he got progressively harder, I think with his mentality. He's younger than me and he was on [GB] first. I almost helped him come through - we helped each other and where we were sparring and it was competitive, and with [Anthony] Joshua as well, we all brought each other on," Joyce explained.
"I was always winning [international] tournaments," he continued. "It got to a point where he was winning the tournaments, we fought and the second fight we had was tougher, it went the distance. Each fight it got harder and harder, until it was the photo finish between us two for the Olympic [place].
"If I hadn't beaten him in that [last] ABAs then it would have been close if I'd have gone [to Rio 2016] or not. So I had to beat him."
Joyce wouldn't deny Parker a rematch if the New Zealander worked his way back into contention.
"If people want to see it I guess we could do it. If it sells, then yeah," he said.
His dominant win over Parker last year has catapulted Joyce up the heavyweight rankings.
He now holds the WBO 'Interim' title which will be on the line when he fights Zhilei Zhang on April 15. If Joyce comes through he will look to challenge the holder of the full WBO heavyweight championship, whether that's Oleksandr Usyk or Tyson Fury.
The Transnational Boxing Rankings, an independent ratings system, considers Joyce the third-best heavyweight in the world now after Usyk and Fury.
"I've proved I'm at the elite level beating Joseph Parker. I'm ready for big things," Joyce said.
"That was my key breakout moment fight. I mean [beating Daniel] Dubois was a big one that shut up a lot of doubters and showed what I'm made of. The Parker fight is just that next level to break through to be at elite level, in the top five.
"It was an overnight change. It was like hang on, I'm being mentioned top five now, talked about.
"It just gave me that extra step up that I needed."
Watch Tony Yoka vs Carlos Takam live on Sky Sports on March 11.
