To no one’s surprise, Joe Joyce pummeled Joseph “no nickname” Parker to the canvas. Well, I guess maybe Parker and his crew were surprised, they said they were supremely confident going into this fight. I don’t know why. I’ve watched all of Joyce’s fights and have detected a pattern: Joyce hits his opponents enough times that they quit.
It’s like Buster Douglas said “You just keep chopping, and eventually they’re gonna go”.
Joyce’s style is pressure and aggression. He never lets up, he’s always moving forward and always swinging. Not wild swinging, not so he punches himself out. It took him ten rounds to knock out Dubois, and eleven to flatten Parker. No, he is disciplined in his assault.
My guess is that it’s hard to mount any offense against him because he never lets you pause in defending yourself.
What was a surprise was how durable he is. We’ve seen hints of it before. Takam hit him with three good rights in their fight to no effect. Dubois got in a couple good ones too. But I lost count of the clean shots that Parker hit him with. That has to be demoralizing in the extreme when you hit a man with your best shot and he just keeps coming – without pause, without reaction except to punch you back – hard.
Joyce once compared himself to George Foreman, and at first I scoffed at the notion. But now I see what he meant. Aggression, power, granite chin. Check, check and check.
They say he’s next in line for a shot at Usyk, and he wants that one too, having an amateur score to settle with him. Usyk has said he only wants to fight the Tosser King (Fury) and if he can’t get that fight he’ll retire. Fury agreed in principal to fighting Usyk, but then started inventing ways to weasel out “Oh you need surgery? Too bad, I wanted to fight yet this year. Oh, and I want half a billion pounds too. You have one week”. Like Jerrell Miller, he hit the trifecta in excuses not to fight.
Now Fury is doing his little pantywaist two-step teasing us (the flirt!) with the idea of fighting Joshua instead.
Anyway, my point is I doubt that any of the tall ones want anything to do with Joyce. It remains to be seen if Usyk can be talked into the rematch. (I looked and that amateur bout was ten years ago.)
We have Wilder / Helenius coming up:
Sorry – I dozed off there for a moment. (I expect a decisive win for Wilder.)
I sure hope my drowsiness is warranted. I am not ready to say goodbye to the Bronze Bomber. I hope he stops the bearded Fin in his inimitable fashion: Stalking, stalking, stalking and *BOOM!* Goodnight sweet prince. I’d like to see him fight Ruiz too, or Zhang, or Hrgovic, or Joshua or Whyte. If Helenius pulls off the upset… well I’ll be upset.
Speaking of Zhang, remember how I said his “loss” to Hrgovic would not hurt his placement in the ratings? Indeed I was right. He actually moved up to number ten in Ring magazine’s poll (Hrgovic is number eight.)
And in their wisdom (I may have to take back the unflattering things I’ve said about them. Well, some of them.) they do not have the big Wanker on their list. The man said he was retired, and until he signs a contract to fight, he’s still retired in my estimation. I wish the WCB would take his belt too.
They currently show:
- Usyk
- Joshua
- Wilder
- Parker
- Ruiz
- Whyte
- Joyce
- Ortiz
- Hrgovic
- Sanchez
- Zhang
Of course the Parker and Joyce positions will change shortly, but other than that I think this list is solid.
The IBO “computerized” (supposedly objective) list has:
- Usyk
- Fury
- Joshua
- Joyce
- Parker
- Ruiz
- Whyte
- Sanchez
- Chisora
- Pulev
- Ortiz
I question Pulev being on there. He has newer impressed me.
Lastly, the Transnational (Teddy Atlas’ baby) has:
- Usyk
- Joshua
- Wilder
- Ruiz
- Parker
- Joyce
- Whyte
- Wallin
- Ortiz
- Michael Hunter
- Martin Bakole
I know, right? I’ve heard Michael Hunter but not Bakole. I looked and he beat Maruisz Wach and Tony Yoka and lost to Michael Hunter. The rest of his resume is no-names. Hunter, on his part, lost to Usyk, and had a draw with Povetkin. His most recent fight was a draw against Jerry Forrest. Not very inspiring. He needs to get those bums out of there (and Otto Wallin too) and put Zhang, Hrgovic and Sanchez on the list.
So many good fighters, and it takes so long to make a good match. I continue to hope that Joyce and Zhang get their chance before they age out.
Heavyweight Life 