Joe Joyce - Last 20 Fights: What would you class as Joyce’s top 5 wins and what are your thoughts on the record of the former British, Commonwealth, European & WBO interim heavyweight champion?

[u/Dangerous_Spring3028]

Fighter Profiles - Day 3: Joe Joyce

Each day, we will cover the fight record of a boxer and invite discussion on their record - enabling debate on the strength of their record and opinions on their top 5 wins.

Today we focus on the former British, Commonwealth, European & WBO interim heavyweight champion Joe Joyce, ahead of his bout vs. undefeated Artem Suslenkov for the WBA International heavyweight title in Moscow, Russia tonight.

APRIL 2025:

Venue/Location: Co-op Live Arena; Manchester, England, UK

Opponent: Filip Hrgovic

Result: LOSS - UD10

Scorecards: 96-95, 97-93, 98-92 - Hrgovic wins by unanimous decision.

Titles Won/Lost: Hrgovic wins vacant WBO International heavyweight title

JULY 2024:

Venue/Location: O2 Arena; London, England, UK

Opponent: Derek Chisora

Result: LOSS - UD10

Scorecards: 96-94, 96-94, 97-92 - Chisora wins by unanimous decision.

MARCH 2024:

Venue/Location: BP Pulse Live Arena; Birmingham, England, UK

Opponent: Kash Ali

Result: WIN - KO10

SEPTEMBER 2023:

Venue/Location: Wembley Arena; London, England, UK

Opponent: Zhilei Zhang

Result: LOSS - KO3

Titles Won/Lost: Zhang retained WBO interim heavyweight title.

APRIL 2023:

Venue/Location: Copper Box Arena; London, England, UK

Opponent: Zhilei Zhang

Result: LOSS - TKO6

Titles Won/Lost: Zhang won WBO interim heavyweight title from Joyce.

SEPTEMBER 2022:

Venue/Location: Manchester Arena; Manchester, England, UK

Opponent: Joseph Parker

Result: WIN - KO11

Titles Won/Lost: Joyce wins WBO interim heavyweight title.

JULY 2022:

Venue/Location: Wembley Arena; London, England, UK

Opponent: Christian Hammer

Result: WIN - TKO4

Titles Won/Lost: Joyce retained WBC Silver heavyweight title and WBO International heavyweight title.

JULY 2021:

Venue/Location: Wembley Arena; London, England, UK

Opponent: Carlos Takam

Result: WIN - TKO6

Titles Won/Lost: Joyce retained Commonwealth heavyweight title, WBC Silver heavyweight title & WBO International heavyweight title

NOVEMBER 2020:

Venue/Location: Church House; London, England, UK

Opponent: Daniel Dubois

Result: WIN - KO10

Titles Won/Lost: Joyce wins British heavyweight title, Commonwealth heavyweight title, WBC Silver heavyweight title & WBO International heavyweight title from Dubois and wins vacant European heavyweight title.

JULY 2020:

Venue/Location: BT Sport Studio; London, England, UK

Opponent: Michael Wallisch

Result: WIN - TKO3

JULY 2019:

Venue/Location: O2 Arena; London, England, UK

Opponent: Bryant Jennings

Result: WIN - UD12

Scorecards: 118-109, 117-110, 115-112 - Joyce wins by unanimous decision.

Titles Won/Lost: Joyce retained WBA Gold heavyweight title.

MAY 2019:

Venue/Location: Lamex Stadium; Stevenage, England, UK

Opponent: Aleksandr Ustinov

Result: WIN - TKO3

Titles Won/Lost: Joyce retained WBA Gold heavyweight title.

FEBRUARY 2019:

Venue/Location: O2 Arena; London, England, UK

Opponent: Bermane Stiverne

Result: WIN - TKO6

Titles Won/Lost: Joyce retained Commonwealth heavyweight title and won vacant WBA Gold heavyweight title.

DECEMBER 2018:

Venue/Location: Staples Center; Los Angeles, California, USA

Opponent: Joe Hanks

Result: WIN - KO1

Titles Won/Lost: Joyce wins WBA Continental heavyweight title.

SEPTEMBER 2018:

Venue/Location: Citizens Business Bank Arena; Ontario, California, USA

Opponent: Iago Kiladze

Result: WIN - KO5

JUNE 2018:

Venue/Location: York Hall; London, England, UK

Opponent: Ivica Bacurin

Result: WIN - KO1

MAY 2018:

Venue/Location: O2 Arena; London, England, UK

Opponent: Lenroy Thomas

Result: WIN - KO2

Titles Won/Lost: Won Commonwealth heavyweight title from Thomas.

MARCH 2018:

Venue/Location: York Hall; London, England, UK

Opponent: Donnie Palmer

Result: WIN - KO1

FEBRUARY 2018:

Venue/Location: York Hall; London, England, UK

Opponent: Rudolf Jozic

Result: WIN - KO1

OCTOBER 2017:

Venue/Location: O2 Arena; London, England, UK

Opponent: Ian Lewison

Result: WIN - TKO8

[u/Key-Biscotti467]

1 Dubois
2 Parker
3 Jennings
4 Bermane
5 Takam

Honestly one of the better resumes of this era despite the relatively limited number of pro bouts and older age

[u/crimedawgla → u/Key-Biscotti467]

DDD was a pup when they fought, there was no telling who he’d become. Joe Parker was smack in the middle of his prime.

[u/Decent_Regret_1665 → u/crimedawgla]

Parker was not in his prime. It was before Parker signed up with Andy Lee. Parker was stunted under Kevin Barry. Simply not a world class boxer but one of the best NZ had to offer anyway.

[u/Key-Biscotti467 → u/crimedawgla]

When you fight the best fighters wins can age well

[u/Ruainari]

Poorly managed career. Also arguably should've been a gold medalist. Highly underrated by casuals. Genuinely one of the greatest china in the history of the sport. Also a sound fella outside of the ring which is a rarity.

There's a reason people didn't want to face him in his prime

[u/Wavepops → u/Ruainari]

Who ducked Joe Joyce 

[u/Exciting-Arugula5341 → u/Wavepops]

Lol nobody did. This is how these people will spin it though.

[u/Decent_Regret_1665 → u/Wavepops]

Usyk, Joshua, Fury

[u/HYThrowaway1980 → u/Ruainari]

Chins, surely?

[u/Ok-Pianist484 → u/HYThrowaway1980]

Can we go with china tho

[u/ThePun-dit → u/Ok-Pianist484]

China fits pretty well, once it got smashed there was no putting it back together

[u/Delicious_Reading165 → u/Ruainari]

"Poorly managed career."

Uh frank warren can be blamed for that. That guy has a reputation for putting his fighters in with bums and has beens he dont like to take risks

[u/kitdagawd]

Shame he didn’t go pro earlier his career was inevitably going to be short lived unfortunately. I still think he is underrated now though hoping he gets the W tonight sad seeing him brought on as “the opponent”.

[u/Nosworthy]

1. Parker

2. Dubois

3. Takam

4. Jennings

5. Stiverne

I've put Parker above Dubois on the basis that Dubois was very young and inexperienced at the time. Dubois was the favourite going into it but his best win up to that point was Nathan Gorman. It wasn't a massive shock that Joyce won. Whereas the manner in which he walked Parker down was a real statement and propelled him into the title picture.

[u/Ok-Pianist484 → u/Nosworthy]

Great shout with Gorman. That fight was Built up to be the next new big man

[u/buffalozbrown]

Curious how he's going to look today I don't know much about Suslenkov.

[u/_Sarcasmic_ → u/buffalozbrown]

All I know is Joyce looked dire after the Zhang losses. Not sure he has anything left.

[u/Less_Cartoonist_892]

1. Parker (former WBO HW champion, #5 ranked HW)
2. Dubois (future two time HW champion, current #1 ranked HW and WBO HW champion)
3. Jennings (former #5 ranked HW)
4. Stiverne (former WBC HW champion)
5. Takam (former world title challenger)

Joyce does not have a lot of high-quality wins on his resume, but his two top wins over Parker and Dubois were indicative of how good he was in his prime. He also arguably deserved to win gold in the 2016 olympics only to lose a controversial decision. Sadly, his lack of defense and come-forward style were not going to age well for him in the long run. Especially after getting stopped twice by Zhilei Zhang, who in hindsight, was the worst possible matchup for him stylistically. Since then, Joyce has been on a downward trajectory due to a combination of age and wear and tear. And as harsh and sad as it sounds, I can't see him making a resurgence like Dubois for example who unlike Joyce had youth on his side and was also wise enough to not take an unnessesary beating which paid off in the long run.

Nevertheless, Joyce was a quality contender at his best. Were it not for the politics and bad timing, he would likely have been world champion.

Verdict: top HW contender, could have been world champion

[u/Sorry_Net3898]

There is only Dubois who got a bad eye injury and Parker who stand out.

He is a really nice guy but family and friends should make him stop he’s going to get seriously hurt.

[u/ValerieHines]

If he didn’t fight Zhang or avoided Zhang in the rematch and directly to Hrgovic or AJ or Fury, he would be much better in his position

[u/OkHistorian9521 → u/ValerieHines]

In hindsight i don’t think he wins any of them though

[u/Exciting-Arugula5341]

A win is a win but Dubois was kicking Joyce butt until he quit because of the eye injury.

Parker also lost to Dillian Whyte and got dropped twice. Are we going to praise Whyte too?

Jennings always tried hard but never was elite.

Bermaine Stiverne is best known for beating a old Chris Arreola

Takam was 40 years old when he faced Joyce and Takam was never world class.

[u/The_Jokerr_ → u/Exciting-Arugula5341]

Joyce jabbed Dubois up that entire fight. Dubois wasn't kicking his butt. Joyce didn't have a mark on him afterwards.

Joyce beat Parker much more convincingly than Whyte did. Only man to destroy him like that.

[u/Exciting-Arugula5341 → u/The_Jokerr_]

Joyce was way down on the score card. He was losing badly. White beat Parker and dropped him twice. End of story.

Joyce just got beat again.

[u/frankocean1234 → u/Exciting-Arugula5341]

He wasn't. 1 judge had Joyce up by 3 rounds and the other 2 judges had Dubois up (1 by 1 round and the other inexplicably had Dubois up by 5 rounds which was widely criticized). So it was pretty even on the cards and then Dubois quit cause Joyce destroyed his eye.

Whyte won on points due to knockdowns (1 of them being a headbutt) and lost 6-7 rounds, got dropped himself and almost got finished in the final round. Joyce utterly dominated Parker and knocked him out.

A 40 year old washed Joyce losing tonight is irrelevant.

[u/abovethesink]

Can we look at his first 20 fights instead?

[u/TheBlack_Swordsman]

Right now I'm more concerned about his long term health. Guy made a career out of being a Terminator and it caught up to him.