OLYMPIC super-heavyweight silver medallist Joe Joyce is close to finalising his next move.
“I’m almost there. I pretty much spoke to everyone,” he tells Boxing News. “It’s quite a tough process of choosing which route to go down.
“It’s quite tough to make a decision because there’s lots of options.”
Joyce received a wave of public support after suffering a bitterly disputed decision loss to Frenchman Tony Yoka in the Olympic 91&kgs final at Rio 2016. After some time off in the period after that heart-breaking defeat, Joyce has been training hard in the gym and can fight imminently.
“Now I’m ready to fight. I’m fighting fit, my weight’s good. I’m ready to start the ball rolling. I’m just looking forward to getting back in there,” he said. “First of all it’s quite a tough job getting the fitness back up. As the fitness goes up, your practice and your skills begin to come back and then you start building on from there. So I’ve built on from that now.”
Joyce has medalled at every major international tournament, as well hugely impressing over the course of 15 five-round pro style bouts in the World Series of Boxing. It means he could advance quickly in the professional ranks. “It depends how fast-tracked I want to be though,” he mused. “I want to be busy my first year, maybe towards the end of the year next year looking towards the British title, that sort of thing.”
