Joe Joyce says he is ready to knock Anthony Joshua and Franklin out as heavyweight makes bold claim
JOE JOYCE has declared he can KNOCK OUT both Anthony Joshua and Jermaine Franklin.
The 37-year-old was left unimpressed by Joshua‘s unanimous points victory against Franklin.
Joe Joyce has declared he can knock out both Anthony Joshua and Jermaine FranklinGetty
Joshua won his bout against Franklin with a unanimous points decisionRex
And Joyce believes he has what it takes to knock both out.
Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: “I’d knock both of them out with their performance the other night.
“I’d definitely force a stoppage on Franklin and Joshua’s ripe for the picking.
“Not great but [Joshua] got the job done. He went 12 rounds, I thought he would come with some more firepower and aim to push a stoppage but he wasn’t really putting shots together.
“He was [using] single shots and boxed kind of like he did in the [Andy] Ruiz second fight. So it was a little bit disappointing.
“He seems to have gone, in my opinion, a bit backwards. Hasn’t progressed. I think he lacked the combinations but I think Franklin was a tough guy.”
Joshua is eyeing his next fight in the summer, with a number of potential opponents lined up including Joyce, Dillian Whyte, Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury.
And 15-0-0 Joyce believes Joshua should be desperate to fight him due to him now having a higher rank and holding the WBO interim heavyweight title.
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He explained: “That would be his route back in.
“It would definitely be his way back in because I’m in front of him now, at last, high up the rankings and obviously got the WBO Interim.
“I was always trying to catch up with him but now I’ve overtaken him, so that’s good. That’s what I wanted. But I haven’t caught up to him financially yet so I need to have those big fights!”
However, Joyce revealed he expects AJ to dodge a fight with him in the summer.
Instead, he believes Joshua will prefer to face off with Whyte, who he previously defeated back in 2015 to claim the British heavyweight title.
Joyce added: “I’m a threat and he would prefer that [Whyte fight] until he’s got his mojo back.
“I’d like to see him against Dillian Whyte, because I think Dillian Whyte’s in the same situation. He didn’t really look too great in the last fight.
“So it would be good to see who the better man is and obviously they’ve got past bad blood. I think the fans would get behind that fight. It would be a good fight.”
Joyce himself is due to fight Zhilei Zhang on April 15.
Though he has insisted he is ready to step up to fight Tyson Fury after the Gypsy King’s fight talks with Oleksandr Usyk for a heavyweight unification bout collapsed.
