TONY YOKA, Franceโs controversial Olympic gold medallist, makes his pro debut on Friday (June 2) in Paris. Itโs a bout his rival Joe Joyce will be taking a keen interest in. The Briton lost a disputed verdict to him in the super-heavyweight final at Rio 2016, a result that still rankles.
โIโm moving on but itโs a good fight that Iโd like to have. Iโm sure the public and the people watching the Olympics would like to see that also,โ Joe told Boxing News. โI thought he was alright, in training camps and stuff like that. But then saying the stuff he said, trying to trash talk me, before the Olympics. How can you take all those shots [in the final] and then Ali shuffle?
โIt would be a big fight, the rematch.โ
Joyce has been training hard himself. He was a key sparring partner for unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua in the build up to the Klitschko fight. โItโs a good learning curve for me, that kind of level sparring, so I can gauge where Iโd be in a big fight like that,โ Joe said.
Joyce has been sparring Cubaโs Mike Perez. โThe first day was like a war. We were both knocking lumps out of each other. The second one was more technical and tactical and the last spar I was really finding my range and putting in some good work,โ Joe said. โHeโs very skilful, obviously a bit rusty because I donโt think heโs had much good quality sparring but very skilful. So a good experience.โ
When it comes to Joeโs own next moveโฆ โStay tuned.โ