In only his fourth professional fight, Joe Joyce won the Commonwealth heavyweight title at the London Arena, on Saturday night.
Joyce made light work of wrenching the title from its holder Lenroy Thomas, stopping the Jamaican fighter in the second round.
Thomas, defending his title, looked to be in trouble from the first bell when he realised that Joyce was intent on walking menacingly forward to unload his clubbing punches.
Joyce, produced shots to both the body and head of Thomas to send his opponent to the canvas on three separate occasions before the referee, Terry O’Connor, called a halt to the action.
The result takes Joyce’s record to 4-0 with all 4 wins coming by way of knockout, whereas Thomas sees his record slip to 22-5-1 with 10 wins coming by way of knockout.
Joyce, 33-years-of-age, looks to be heading for bigger and better things than the Commonwealth belt, but, in his post-fight interview, suggested he wants to win the British belt next, remarking to Sky Sports, from ringside,
“I thought I did a good job.
“Hopefully gave everyone watching here at home a good show. The Commonwealth title means a lot. I knew he would be a tricky opponent, but I just used my range and got to him. I’m up for everything. The world is my oyster. I would like to challenge for the British title. It’s a lovely belt.”
The British title is currently held by Sam Sexton who will be making a defence of it, next Saturday night, against Hughie Fury.
On the evidence of what we witnessed last night, I recon Joyce has the beating of both of those fighters as he looks to gate-crash the heavyweight world title scene.
