The big, strong Londoner wore down former heavyweight champion Joseph Parker before finally stopping him 1:03 into the 11th round of a scheduled 12-round bout Saturday at AO Arena in Manchester, England.
Thus, Joyce became the WBO’s “interim” title-holder and made him the mandatory challenger for Oleksandr Usyk’s belt.
Joyce (15-0, 14 KOs) imposed his physical ad-vantages from the beginning of the fight, stalking Parker (30-3, 21 KOs), punishing him with his in-cessant jab and landing heavy blows that took a toll on his opponent.
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And he wasn’t the slightest bit reckless, fighting at a distance that was advantageous to him.
Parker had some strong moments, landing some of the biggest punches of the fight as Joyce was coming in. However, Joyce took the shots and sim-ply kept coming.
Joyce attacked Parker in earnest to open the final round, unloading a high volume of punches and landing many of them. However, the knockout was of the one-punch variety, a brutal shot that might’ve taken out anyone in boxing today.
Parker had never been stopped in his career be-fore Saturday night. The judges had Joyce leading at the time of the stoppage by five, three and two points, the latter two of which were much closer than the Boxing Junkie card. We had Joyce leading by six points, 98-92, after 10 rounds.
Joyce’s victory was a significant break through for him, as Parker, a titleholder in 2016-18, is a re-spected heavyweight who seemed to be clicking with new trainer Andy Lee.
At the same time, the victory doesn’t mean Joyce will get an immediate shot at Usyk, who appears to have his sights set on fellow beltholder Tyson Fury and former champ Deontay Wilder at the moment. Joyce, 37, took a significant step toward his first opportunity to fight for a major title. His timing is coming.—AFP
