By Shaun Murphy-
Tyson Fury, the WBC world heavyweight champion, has credited Joe Joyce as the next best heavyweight after the gypsy king, making him the leading contender in the division.
Unbeaten Fury openly said the Londoner deserves a shot at his title.
“I’ve just looked at these prospects who are mandatory for the world title, [Zhilei] Zhang and [Filip] Hrgovic and everybody else, I’ve changed my mind and I think big Joe Joyce is number two heavyweight in the world,” Fury said.
He added: “And who knows if he’s number one? One day we’ll have to find out who’s better out of me and him.
“But at the moment I’m ruling the roost because I’m world heavyweight champion and he’s not”.
Fury’s comment is complementary to Joyce who became the first man to stop Joseph Parker, after knocking him out with a left hook in the 11th round of their heavyweight scrap last weekend.
Joyce is gradually building himself a reputation in the heavyweight division as a winner victory earned unbeaten Joyce a WBO interim title, extending his unbeaten record to 15 fights, with 14 of those wins coming inside the distance. He is next in line to face Olegsander Usyk for the unified belts but may have to wait for Tyson and the Ukranian to fight for a unification of the belts next year before Joyce can get his shot and Fury.”
Joyce, 37 who won a silver medal in the olympics, picked up the sport late at the age of 22, and has proven very difficult to beat as he made his way up the ranks of the heavyweight division. He is one of the very few big men to become mandatory for a world title shot with under 20 fights.
He began to gain more credibility after his 9th round victory over touted Daniel Dubois in 2021, in what was a tough and difficult fight. Boxing pundits were previously undecided as to who to pick as their predicter winner for that fight. Since then he has continued to show steady improvement in his performance but is yet to meet the division’s best to prove himself the second best.
The likes of Deontey Wilder and Andy Ruiz are still big names in the division he will need to face and beat before having an outright claim to being the next best after Tyson Fury.
Joyce was also slated to face Anthony Joshua, when the Londoner was waiting for Olegsander Usyk to return from Ukraine and face him in a rematch.
Fury is scheduled to box on December 3 and has been in negotiations to face Anthony Joshua. While Fury has publicly lost patience with those talks, Mahmoud Charr has also come into the frame as a potential challenger for him.
Boxing fans would rather see Fury face Joshua, and then unify the belts against Usyk, before defending against Joe Joyce.
Fury is expected to breeze through both Joshua and Usyk in big moneymaking fights but could be up against a tougher test in Joe Joyce after.
The gypsy king has always rated himself the best heavyweight of all times, but knows he has to beat more notable names to earn that level of credit. Adding the name of Joyce to a list of respected achieves in his division like Wladimir Klitschko, Deontey Wilder, and soon Anthony Joshua and Olegsander Usyk will move him closely towards that historical credentials.