WHAT you see with Joe Joyce on television and read in interviews is exactly what heโs like in real life. He doesnโt get flustered when heโs in the ring with heavyweights who are trying to knock him out so he most certainly doesnโt get flustered by anything that happens outside of the ring.
Nonetheless, it hasnโt been an easy eight months since he knocked out Daniel Dubois. The narrative going into that fight was the winner would get a shot at the vacant WBO title against Oleksandr Usyk but then Tyson Fury-Anthony Joshua fell through and weโre no further along with that. Weโre being told that if Joe beats Carlos Takam this weekend heโll be in line to face the Joshua-Usyk winner. But will that really happen? Probably not. We know that if Usyk wins it will be probably be a Joshua rematch and if Joshua wins heโll be moved towards Fury. The situation with the sanctioning bodies is ridiculous. Suddenly Dubois, who lost to Joyce, is the mandatory with the WBA before Joe has even fought. How does that work?
But Joe is a patient guy and he will continue to fight until he gets his chance for the world championship. We donโt want a situation like Dillian Whyte finds himself in but we are being realistic about the future.
Joe and I are similar in many ways and thatโs why we work so well as a team. We donโt get stressed or over-excited. We understand each other. Apart from the three weeks he spent with former trainer Ismael Salas last year, weโve been working together as fighter and coach for a year.
I understand Salas as a trainer and several of his methods remain. But I have implemented some different things with Joe over the past 12 months that are working well. Salasโ style was typically Cuban; it was based on rhythm, technique and co-ordination. Heโs the type of trainer who would watch a video of a fighter throwing a hook and identify that theyโre not turning their hand over correctly.
Iโve spent more time on working on Joeโs defence, getting him to deflect shots and to work on the inside, which is too often undervalued. Joe is a good student, he will always listen and is willing to try new things. But heโs not one of those fighters who will pick up new techniques immediately, they need to be drilled into him over time. From my perspective, I see the subtle improvements in his defence that no one else sees, I see him putting those combinations together that weโve been working on so tirelessly. It takes time, but Joe gets it.
Takam is the ultimate heavyweight gatekeeper and I mean no disrespect by that. Heโs fought the top guys but heโs lost to the top guys. Weโve watched Takam at his best and weโre preparing for that version of Takam but, even then, thereโs nothing I see that sets him apart from the kind of competition Joe beats all day long. That said, weโd be fools to take him lightly. Heโs no Joe Frazier but he does bob and weave and bowls shots over as he comes in. We are aware that though heโs short, he has long arms โ longer than Joe โ so we have considered that. He also has a good palate of punches to choose from. Heโs solid in many areas.
Joe has had excellent sparring against top amateurs like Natty Ngwenya, whose dimensions are very similar to Takam. Weโve also used Alen Babic. Heโs been a bit different. Heโs not as technically good as Takam but he came ready to go to war. If Takam wants a war, we are ready. If he wants a boxing match, we can do that too.
We know Takam is strong but weโre not as fearful of his power as we were someone like Dubois, for example. Takam can bang but he rarely puts the lights out with one punch. Joyce will not be complacent, itโs simply not in his nature. Not about this fight or about his future.
There is still a lot of work to do.