Joe Joyce calls on Frazer Clarke for Olympic revenge: ‘Please beat Tony Yoka up for me!’ | Boxing News
After a breakout win over Joseph Parker this year, Joe Joyce expects to fight for a world title in the summer.
But, while he’s occupied with that target, he wants former amateur rival and ex-GB team-mate Frazer Clarke to exact some revenge on his behalf.
Joyce lost a highly controversial decision to France’s Tony Yoka in the 2016 Olympic final. Yoka is now a professional boxer, who sustained a loss to Martin Bakole earlier this year.
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Frazer Clarke says he hopes for a rematch with Joe Joyce in the future after Joyce beat him four times in the amateurs
Clarke won a super-heavyweight bronze medal at the Olympic Games last year and is now a 4-0 professional prospect.
Joyce would like to see Clarke box Yoka in the pros.
“Please Frazer, beat Yoka up!” Joyce said.
“That’s a potential fight down the line,” Joyce told Sky Sports.
“I’m happy Frazer’s come through now and he’s starting to get to work and pick his way up. Even a fight with Yoka, he could beat up Yoka for me!
“There’s some good fights. I’d like to see him against Fabio Wardley [the British champion], there’s Sol Dacres, Nathan Gorman. They’re even fights he could have quite soon, they’re interesting fights on the way up for him.”
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Look back at footage of Joe Joyce’s explosive amateur clash against Oleksandr Usyk ahead of their potential showdown in the pro ranks
Those are the kind of fights that would carry Clarke towards a potential fight with Joyce too. They boxed several times in the amateurs and Joyce could see them renewing that rivalry in the pros.
Although Joyce won all their amateur encounters, he says Clarke became an increasingly difficult opponent and would still be formidable as a pro.
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Frazer Clarke says the six rounds were needed after he beat Kamil Sokolowski
“The first fight it was an easy win, I stopped him, his eye swelled up. But he got progressively harder, I think with his mentality. He’s younger than me and he was on [GB] first. I almost helped him come through – we helped each other and where we were sparring and it was competitive, and with [Anthony] Joshua as well, we all brought each other on,” Joyce explained.
“I was always winning [international] tournaments,” he continued. “It got to a point where he was winning the tournaments, we fought and the second fight we had was tougher, it went the distance. Each fight it got harder and harder, until it was the photo finish between us two for the Olympic [place].
“If I hadn’t beaten him in that [last] ABAs then it would have been close if I’d have gone [to Rio 2016] or not. So I had to beat him.”
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Boxer Frazer Clarke shares how his experiences of working as a security guard before turning professional benefit him in the ring
Joyce wouldn’t deny Parker a rematch if the New Zealander worked his way back into contention.
“If people want to see it I guess we could do it. If it sells, then yeah,” he said.
His dominant win over Parker this year has catapulted Joyce up the heavyweight rankings.
He holds the WBO ‘Interim’ title which makes him the mandatory challenger for their world championship.
The Transnational Boxing Rankings, an independent ratings system, considers Joyce the third-best heavyweight in the world now after Oleksandr Usyk and Tyson Fury.
“I’ve proved I’m at the elite level beating Joseph Parker. I’m ready for big things,” Joyce said.
“That was my key breakout moment fight. I mean [beating Daniel] Dubois was a big one that shut up a lot of doubters and showed what I’m made of. The Parker fight is just that next level to break through to be at elite level, in the top five.
“It was an overnight change. It was like hang on, I’m being mentioned top five now, talked about.
“It just gave me that extra step up that I needed.”
