Oliver Joyce takes on former world champion Haskins in comeback fight
BBN writer Gus Devlin takes a look into the Joyce-Haskins championship fight due to take place on the first day of February:
The vacant WBO European super-bantamweight title will be contested between former holder of the featherweight version David Oliver Joyce (11-1, 8KOs) and former IBF Bantamweight world champion Lee Haskins (36-4, 14KOS) at the Ulster Hall in Belfast in what promises to be an exciting and enthralling encounter between the pair.
Joyce is an accomplished amateur who only turned pro in 2017 after losing in the first round of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Since then, he had built up an impressive undefeated record of 11-0, before being surpisingly beaten by Leigh Wood (23-1, 13KOs) in the quarter finals of the MTK Golden Contract tournament last October.
Signed to the behemoth that is MTK Global, the mammoth management group have quickly secured their Irish star with another big fight to bounce back with against 'Playboy' Lee Haskins, where a win could propel him high up the rankings of the world governing bodies.
Joyce, a high work-rate fighter with solid boxing fundamentals, will have to work hard to pin down the experienced Haskins to have success in this fight. He would have learnt a lot about himself in his last fight where he touched down twice – once in the second and again in the seventh – before being stopped in the ninth, and will be aware of Haskins' slick ability and evasive nature in the ring, which could make for a very tricky and, at times, frustrating fight for the Irishman.
Joyce comes into this contest following defeat whereas Haskins has back-to-back wins behind him.
20 months after his last fight in December 2017 and 36-year-old Haskins returned to ring with a six round points decision win over Sergio Gonzalez very recently in October 2019. In rare and remarkable circumstances, the South Western legend shared the bill with his son, Anton, as he had his pro debut alongside his famous father.
Haskins knocked his Nicaraguan opponent Gonzalez down in the very first round as he progressed to a 60-53 points victory. He also decked his previous opponent Isaac Quaye (31-14-1), a Commonwealth title contender, in December 2017, which also went the six-round distance. Both those victories came after he lost his IBF world bantamweight belt to Ryan Burnett (16-0) in June 2017.
As Haskins enters his 17th year as a paid puncher, he will be looking to forge a resurgence in his career and by the time he gets in the ring he will be 37 years of age. He will hope father time isn’t coming anytime soon and campaigning at a higher weight class of 126lbs may pay dividends for the ageing fighter, who looks to be giving it one last roll of the dice.
Haskins, a slick boxer who has not been stopped in eight years, will be looking to utilise his boxing IQ and ring generalship to out-fox the less experienced Joyce, who will be the Bristol boxer's 41st professional opponent.
In Joyce’s last fight he commanded the centre of the ring for the opening rounds which may be a mirror of what we see in this bout – Joyce forcing the action, but Haskins working off the back-foot looking to counter the Irishman at every opportunity and staying out of the pocket. These styles could make for a very interesting fight the longer it goes on given that Joyce has only gone the scheduled 10-rounds distance just once – against Breiler Teran (27-17-1) in July 2019 in Kazakhstan.
Haskins, a seasoned pro, having mixed it at world level, will want to have that opportunity again before he hangs his gloves up for good. Firstly, he has Joyce standing in his way, who has aspirations of his own. The 32-year-old from Mullingar is only 30 months into his professional career and is still on the ascendency. He has already captured the European strap at featherweight and his move down to super-bantamweight seems very sensible, given that weighed in just 2lbs above the limit when he first captured the WBO European belt by halting Scot Stephen Tiffney (10-1) in seven last April.
It's an intruiging match up which sees two contrasting styles clash, with one fighter seemingly on the way up and the other questionably on his way down.
CHIEF SUPPORT
Sean McComb (9-0) will look to extend his unbeaten record to 10-0 as he takes on experienced Argentinian Mauro Maximiliano Godoy (32-5-1).
The 27-year-old Northern Irishman boxed four times in 2019 and he will be hoping February 1st can be a platform to keep climbing steadily up the pro ranks. An experienced opponent like Godoy, a two-time national champion at super-lightweight, can show a style in the ring and potential problems which McComb may have not seen before.
Godoy, 30, is coming into the contest off a win in November of last year and will be looking to cause an upset by defeating the 2015 Baku bronze medalist. The South American, who’s been in the ring with the likes of current EBU super-lightweight champion Sandor Martin, and took Colombian Samuel Vargas to a draw over 10-rounds, who is known to UK fight fans for knocking down Amir Khan during their 12-round contest in 2018, will try to use his experience and ring know-how to cause problems for McComb.#
Known as 'El Rayo', with 17 KOs from 32 victories, he can be comprehensively outboxed if 'Sugar' Sean can stick to his skills.
UNDERCARD
The vacant Irish lightweight title will be on the line when Gary Cully (9-0) and Joe Fitzpatrick (10-0) boldly put their undefeated records on the line.
Undefeated Lewis 'The Croc' Crocker (10-0), 22 from Belfast, steps up in class as he takes on former British title challenger John Thain (17-4).
Steven Donnelly (8-0) looks to stretch his unbeaten record to 9-0 as he takes on the experienced William Warbuton (26-164-10), who ended 2019 on 200 fights.
Super Middleweight Padraig McCrory (9-0) fights Dan Blackwell (7-68).
In the 135lbs divison, Sean Gerard Duffy (3-0) takes on Jamie Quinn (7-98-2).
Unbeaten super-featherweight prospect Callum Bradley (3-0) looks to make it four from four against Hull's Luke Fash (2-58-2)
Belfast's 'The Rook' Ruairi Dalton (1-0) gets the opportunity to double his win tally against Swindon's 'Busy Bee' Joe Beeden (2-74-1).
At Super-Lightweight, Dublin's 'Big Bang' Pierce O’Leary (3-0) fights former English title contender Liam Richards (12-62) as he looks to start 2020 how he ended 2019 – with another win.
Taylor McGoldrick (3-1) will be make his eagerly awaited ring return after seven months out as he takes on experienced veteran Lewis Van Poetsch (9-117-2).
Cruiserweight prospect Damien Sullivan (1-1) is also on the bill, eager to get back to winning ways after a surprise first-round stoppage after being caught by winning fighter Mateusz Kubiszyn (2-1) last August, but his opponent is yet to be announced.