JOE JOYCE insists he is ready to fight for the British heavyweight in only his second professional contest, as soon as December of this year.
Sam Sexton won the championship against Gary Cornish earlier this month. “I watched the recent fight, against Cornish, I thought I could take both of them. We’ll see if that fight gets made for December,” Joe said.
His promoter David Haye added, “Hopefully people are brave. Sexton just won the British title, to fight someone in their second pro fight in a 12 rounder you’d think he’d be brave enough to do that. The same with the winner of [Dave] Allen and Lenroy Thomas [for the Commonwealth title].”
On Friday, Joyce, an Olympic silver medallist, completed his professional debut, halting Ian Lewison inside eight rounds. It had been scheduled for 10. “No problem, I would have been happy to do 10. Eight was quite comfortable,” Joyce said. “It was quite fun actually… It was tough because I haven’t boxed for so long and all credit to Ian Lewison he’s got a bang on him. I really had to be switched on the whole bout and had to be careful.
“Normally I box regularly and that was the longest time I’ve had off since the Olympics, which was over a year.
“I don’t get nervous anyway. I didn’t feel rusty, I just hadn’t done it for a while so it’s quite good to get back in there.”
He coped with a strain in his right arm and took the dangers of pro boxing in his stride. “I was working with my left hand a lot more, because I did something to my right arm, I just used my left a lot more, incorporating the stuff that I’ve been learning with [Ismael] Salas,” he reflected. “I couldn’t throw the bolo because it was going to strain my arm.
“I could see the [punches] coming. I didn’t feel like took any clean one, I was moving out the way. Nothing that troubled me.”
