DAVID HAYE would not be drawn on his future in the immediate aftermath of last Saturdayโs defeat to Tony Bellew. But the brutal destruction he experienced has surely ended Hayeโs career at the top level.
It makes the future of his promotional company, Hayemaker Ringstar interesting to contemplate. Richard Schaefer, the promoter who is part of the joint venture, insisted, โI donโt think that Hayemaker Ringstar really is depending on David performing himself in the ring. We have a handful of great fighters. I think Joe Joyce is going to be very quickly carrying the company and Iโm sure will be carrying the heavyweight division as well. Iโm extremely impressed with him. Frankly, irrespective of weight class, I havenโt seen somebody who is so professional, who is so focused, who trains so hard and who has the style he has, particularly as a heavyweight. I see the man spar and he literally spars in the first round as he spars in the 12th round – as hard and the same pace as he spars in the first round. You look at how heโs built, the strength, you just look at him โฆ the legs remind me of Manny Pacquiao legs, theyโre like tree trunks.
โTo see somebody like that, who has that energiser bunny kind of mentality who keeps coming and coming and coming and wears you down, takes you to the body to the chin to the whatever and then he just goes for the kill. This guy I can guarantee you is going to be heavyweight champion.โ
Joyce was impressive when he marmalised Lenroy Thomas to win the Commonwealth title in only his fourth professional contest. They are determined to move him promptly to big fights. Joyce has already taken to Twitter to call out Jarrell Miller, an American who is being sized up as a potential Anthony Joshua opponent. Hayemaker intend to hasten Joyce to world level next year.
โBritish title is obviously the next thing, then European title, then world title I think and all that happening pretty quickly,โ Schaefer said.
He does see world titles becoming available. โI think [Deontay] Wilder and Joshua, assuming they fight and I think they will, Iโm positive that fight will happen, will have one or two fights between the two of them. As weโve seen in other weight classes itโs very, very difficult to keep all four belts because of all these mandatories. So I think itโs a matter of time and I would assume between now and a year from now that we will have one of those titles vacant and Joe can fight for one of those vacant titles and if not fight against whether a Deontay Wilder or Anthony Joshua, Joe has no problem with that,โ Schaefer continued.
They are fortunate that Joyce, an Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth Games medallist, has already had 15 professional style contests in the World Series of Boxing. The 32-year-old suits being moved quickly.
โYou have to keep in mind todayโs amateurs are not the way amateurs 10 years ago were. The fact that some of them have participated in some of those more pro-like circuits that AIBA offers, whether itโs the World Series of Boxing or these other formats and fighting without headgear as well, itโs not the same amateurs. Theyโre much more advanced. Thatโs why they can move much more quickly and weโve seen that with [Vasyl] Lomachenko. And you really can compare it from an experience level with Lomachenko and Lomachenko fought in one of his first couple of fights for a world title and so I think Joe is on that level.โ
Joyce was certainly unlucky to lose his Olympic final to Tony Yoka. The Frenchman is also promoted by Schaefer and that could be a big fight for Joe. โThatโs one of the fights we discussed as well and obviously of course he wants it and Iโm sure Tony will do that as well. I donโt like to marinade, I like big fights to happen, everybody knows that, but I think the fight today wouldnโt really be as significant as it can be in a couple of years obviously Tony is very young and is learning a lot with Virgil Hunter in California. Heโs not as advanced in the professional ranks as Joe is and thatโs why we need to move Tony up a bit and thatโs what he will do and then we will eventually see that fight,โ Schaefer said.
โMy dream of course is that Tony will be heavyweight champion and Joe would be heavyweight champion and that would be a unification bout. That would be my dream come true.โ