Carl Froch raises genuine concern for Joe Joyce’s career
Former super-middleweight world champion, Carl Froch, has admitted that the career of his fellow countryman and current heavyweight contender, Joe Joyce, may well be over as a result of his diminishing key asset that saw him rise into title contention in 2022.
Putney puncher Joyce beat Joseph Parker almost 18 months ago to claim the WBO interim world title and tee himself up for a shot at Oleksandr Usyk, with his formidable chin making him a genuine threat for any opponent in the division.
However in 2023, that same fabled punch resistance was twice cracked by Chinese powerhouse Zhilei ‘Big Bang’ Zhang who secured back-to-back knockout wins over the Briton to hand Joyce his first and second career defeats.
Now, the road back to the peak of the heavyweight division seems an arduous one for ‘The Juggernaut’, and Froch told talkSPORT that it may be best for the 38-year-old to call time on his relatively short professional career.
“Joe Joyce, I don’t know if he is finished yet, but he is about ready to hang them up I think. I know that he is coming back and he is going to continue fighting but I don’t think that there is many fights left amongst the top three [in the United Kingdom].”
“I think that his biggest attribute and his biggest asset was the ability to take a punch and now that has virtually gone, it appears to be gone. It might not be, we will see in his next fight, but if that goes then it is game over.”
Nevertheless, Joyce returns to the ring on March 16th, where he takes on Kash Ali (21-2) on the ‘Magnificent Seven’ undercard in Birmingham, which also features the likes of Nathan Heaney, Liam Davies, Zach Parker, Bradley Strand and Dennis McCann.