Joe Joyce believes the World Series of Boxing (WSB) is the ideal platform for him to realise his Olympic dreams.
Super-heavyweight Joyce will line up for the British Lionhearts against the Algeria Desert Hawks at York Hall on Thursday, looking to continue his impressive WSB record.
Joyce’s second-round stoppage of Viktor Vykhryst in the Lionhearts’ away fixture against the Ukraine Otamans was his ninth victory in ten WSB bouts, having boxed for the Britain in 2012-13 and Italia Thunder in 2013-14.
Up next is Algeria’s Mohamed Grimes and with WSB offering a qualification route to the next Olympic Games, Joyce admits his sights are now set on Rio 2016.
“WSB is tailor-made for me,” he said. “It suits my style because I have got a great engine and the extra rounds give me more opportunity to set the pace and out work my opponents.
“A lot of heavyweights are big and strong but they cannot match me for work rate or the number of punches I throw. They get tired after the first three or four rounds and that works in my favour.
“When you box for five rounds you can really think your way through a fight. You are in the ring for longer and you have more opportunities to try things so it has improved my ringcraft.
“When I got into the sport going to the Olympics was always my aim so that is the long term goal. The qualification path for Rio is quite complicated so the ideal scenario is to qualify through WSB and get it done and dusted early.
“It won’t be easy as there are a lot of good boxers in this competition so the best thing to do is just focus on my next fight and beat whoever is in front of me.”
© Sportsbeat 2015