Joe Joyce signs with Al Haymon

Boxingnews24.com

By Scott Gilfoid

In a smart move, Joe Joyce has reportedly signed with American adviser Al Haymon to help guide his career to take him to the next level. The 2016 Olympic Silver medalist Joyce (5-0, 5 KOs) is promoted by Hayemaker in the UK, but he’s failed to get the fights that he’s wanted against Dereck Chisora, Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller and Dillian Whyte. Some boxing fans feel that Joyce is the second best heavyweight in the UK behind Anthony Joshua right now, and he’s arguably the most avoided.

Joyce will be making his first fight soon in the United States with trainer Abel Sanchez. Signing with Haymon is a great move on Joyce’s part in helping him become a world champion.

Haymon is a fine manager/adviser, who should be able to take the 6’6” Joyce’s to the next level to get him an eventual title shot against WBC champion Deontay Wilder, who he manages, as well as IBF/WBA/WBO champion Anthony Joshua. Getting a fight against Joshua might prove to be a little more difficult because he’s with Eddie Hearn of Matchroom Boxing USA/DAZN. But as long as Joyce gets moved up the ranks to earn a mandatory spot with the IBF, WBA or WBO, he’ll be able to force a title shot.

For some UK boxing fans, they’re already cruising Joyce’s decision to sign with Haymon as a bad career move. They feel that the 32-year-old Joyce should have signed with Eddie Hearn and his Matchroom stable so that he could potentially be kept active fighting on his DAZN cards in the U.S or his Matchroom Sport cards in the UK. However, it’s understandable why Joyce would want to sign with a talented manager like Haymon, because he can take his career to the next level and get him huge paydays in the U.S. That’s where the money is at potentially with the large population of fans in the States.

If Joyce signed with Hearn, he would need to take a backseat to his golden goose Anthony Joshua, and he might end up like James DeGale did when he was with the same promoter. DeGale was going nowhere with Hearn, so he ended up becoming a road warrior in traveling to States for his fights. Joyce is showing ambition in signing with Haymon to have him turn him into a star in the States. Hearn whiffed on turning Lee Selby into a star, and he’s not doing much with Dillian Whyte, Dereck Chisora and Dave Allen. Whyte might get a title shot against Joshua next year, but he’s failed at getting a fight against Deontay Wilder, which you can argue is a product of the soft match-making that has been done by Hearn.

Joyce recently teamed up with trainer Abel Sanchez to be trained by him in Big Bear, California in the States. Sanchez is the superb trainer who has helped craft middleweight champion Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin into one of the biggest stars in the U.S.

Haymon doesn’t have a lot of time to turn Joyce into a star. Joyce will be turning 33-year-old in September, and he can’t be brought along slowly. He’s got to be moved in a hurry if he’s to get a crack at a world title before he ages out. The good news is that with Joyce now signed with Haymon, he doesn’t need to wait as long for him to get a world title shot due to the talented manager having Wilder as one of his fighters. If Joyce had signed with Hearn, he likely would have had to get in line behind Whyte, Chisora and Allen. Who knows how long Joyce would have needed to wait before he eventually got a title shot against Joshua. Heck, he might end up being ignored permanently by Joshua in the same way Wilder is.

As we’ve seen with Wilder, being super talented doesn’t guarantee that you can get a fight against Joshua. All that guarantees is that Joshua and Hearn are going to name drop your name constantly and give you flat fee offers, as we’ve seen with Wilder. As such, Joyce has made the smart move in signing with Haymon, because Wilder isn’t going to turn down a fight with Joyce. Wilder will take that fight when the time comes for Haymon to make that fight. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if Haymon has Joyce challenge Wilder for his WBC title by 2019. I can’t see him letting that fight marinate for three to five years the way some promoters would. Would Hearn let Joyce fight Joshua anytime soon if he’d signed with his Matchroom stable? My guess is no. Joyce would likely need to wait a long, long time before he eventually gets a title shot against him.