Joe Joyce continued his unstoppable ascent to the top table of world boxing on the Saturday night of July 25th, his momentum lifting him through a tricky opening three rounds and toward an ultimately dominant sixth-round stoppage victory over journeyman Carlos Takam.
Joyce overpowers resilient Takam
Joyce started in energetic fashion, keen to dispose of Takam early and lay down a marker for his next fight. This enhanced Takam’s explosive threat in the early stages, and a predisposition to defend the midriff exposed the Juggernaut to blows over the gloves and onto his skull early on. The stocky Takam packs a punch, punches which were landing at a rate of noughts and causing some consternation in the Joyce corner, as Takam set off early winning the first three rounds. The Juggernaut has faced numerous hurdles in a varied career that has encapsulated many fighting types, but the experience of Takam – his most seasoned opponent to date – threatened to be a hurdle too far.
Joyce rode that wave, and hit back emphatically late in the third; a barrage of punches including jabs, uppercuts and hooks consecutively landed on the head of Takam, who was thankful to be saved by the bell. His arms raised in defiance, Takam tried to remain resolute, but couldn’t match the relaxed composure of Joyce who knew the tide had turned, and that he had plenty left in the tank.
From there, it was business as usual. Joyce was as comfortable working on the inside – dodging Takam’s swings while delivering a flurry of shots of his own to the body – as he was keeping the Frenchman at arm’s length with his increasingly famous jab. Joyce looked like a champion in the latter half of the fight, forcing Takam to march to the beat of the Juggernaut’s drum, and looking increasingly comfortable as blows landed with waning resistance. Takam’s night was put to a definite, devastating end in the sixth round – a perfect triple combination pushed the wobbly Frenchman into the corner, and within 40 seconds the fight was finished, Takam unable to guard himself from Joyce’s barrage of follow-up punches.
This is the beauty of Joyce, whose persistence of punch bewitches his opponents and leads increasingly to a forgone conclusion of victory. Most frightening for his future adversaries, the efficiency of victory is increasing with each fight; Joyce following up victory over Dubois in eight rounds last November with victory in six over Takam. The latter marked a victory at a quicker pace than current champ Anthony Joshua and former challenger Derek Chisora.
Joyce looked alive with the return of crowds, feeding off of their energy as if it offered a literal injection of adrenaline at each stoppage and made his superiority increasingly apparent. In a sport where an athlete’s relationship with the crowd is pivotal, these are all good signs as Joyce awaits bigger fights to come.
Juggernaut goes primetime as he waits on Usyk or Joshua
A matter of months ago, Joyce struggled to seriously put his name in for title consideration, his journeyman status leading to an underestimation and leaving the impetus on the Juggernaut to make his own destiny and earn a title fight. But with the inevitability of his persistent jab hobbling his opponents into submission, Joyce has put aside serious opposition to convert his knocking on the door of a title contest into a deafening banging. Make no mistake, Joyce has now become Box Office material at the most exciting time in the British heavyweight boxing history.
He now waits on the outcome of the clash between Oleksander Usyk and Anthony Joshua on 25th September. A meeting with Joshua may offer the crowd the British Heavyweight clash they didn’t know they wanted – both former Olympians and regular sparring partners, Joshua vs Joyce could prove to the ultimate tactical affair, with good blood threatening to turn bad.
As the de facto mandatory challenger for the crown, Joyce may have to be patient once again as discussions inevitably return to Joshua vs Fury. But this is what Joe Joyce does, and having been handed all manner of obstacles on his way to the pinnacle of heavyweight boxing, the question is surely when – not if – Joyce’s named rings out as the contender for the Heavyweight crown. From there, hearing ‘champion’ follow his name is only a fight away.