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Everyone knows that George Foreman became the oldest man to win the world heavyweight title when he beat Michael Moorer at age 45 to claim the title for the second time.
But if Joe Joyce ever becomes world heavyweight champion, it’s likely he’ll do so as the oldest boxer to win the title for the first time.
Joyce turned 37 this week, the same age Jersey Joe Walcott, Corrie Sanders and Oleg Maskaev were when they were crowned heavyweight champions. No one has done it for the first time at 38, but when it comes to birthdays, Joyce has stopped counting.
“You get to a certain age where nobody cares about candles,” Joyce said. “I didn’t start until I was 22, so I’m still very fresh. I haven’t had 300 amateur fights and I’ve only had 14 pro fights, so I’ve got a few more years to go.”
Joyce faces Joseph Parker for the interim WBO title in Manchester on Saturday. The decision to request that the fight take place for the interim title instead of having it as a final eliminator has two advantages. Firstly, it means the winner would be elevated to champion should Oleksandr Usyk, who also holds the WBA and IBF titles, ever vacate. It also protects the winner from a WBO rule that allows the lower-weight champion, in this case Lawrence Okolie, to skip the line and become a mandatory contender if he decides to move up in weight.
It was that rule that Usyk used to get his chance against Anthony Joshua. And under the mandatory challenger rotation policy, the WBO now finds itself behind the WBA (Daniel Dubois) and the IBF (Filip Hrgovic) on Usyk’s tail. In fact, the Ukrainian’s retirement is probably Joyce’s best shot at becoming a world champion before the age of 38, although he would be more than happy to face Usyk, who beat him in five rounds at a World Series of Boxing event. at York Hall, East London. , in 2013.
“I definitely would like to be a world champion by then and hopefully after this fight I can have potential,” Joyce said. “George Foreman came back at 45 years old and had more technical skills than he did when he was younger. you never know Usyk is a fight I want. I enjoyed the first fight we had even though I lost. During the 12 rounds he had been looking to turn it around.
“Sometimes I can be too patient, I could be more eloquent about things. I think I’ll get there eventually. There are many twists and turns.
“It’s a complicated sport because there are so many governing bodies and complicated characters, it’s like a minefield.”
There is still hope that Tyson Fury will defend his WBC title against Anthony Joshua in December, a fight that Joyce is very interested in. times later in sparring while Joshua stayed at the GB Boxing gym in Sheffield. In fact, Joshua traveled to the Rio Olympics in 2016 to cheer on Joyce, although they are nowhere near now.
“I can’t imagine Fury not winning,” Joyce said. “I haven’t really seen or talked to Joshua since he was on Team GB. I talked to Tyson more recently and now he’s on the other side of the table. [with Parker].
“I think Fury is the best fight.”
He may be friends with Fury now, but that could change if he ends up fighting him.
“I think he will, especially if it’s the press conference. You know how Tyson gets,” Joyce said.
“It would be funny.”
Ron Lewis is a senior writer for BoxingScene. He was a boxing correspondent for The Times, where he worked from 2001 to 2019, covering four Olympic Games and numerous world title fights around the world. He has written about boxing for a wide variety of publications around the world since the 1980s.
