By Geno McGahee
British heavyweight contender, Joe Joyce, 8-0, 8 KO’s, beat up and stopped an incredibly out of shape former WBC heavyweight champion, Bermane Stiverne, 25-4-1, 21 KO’s, in round six.
Stiverne, coming in at 273 pounds, came out strong in the first round and tried to stop Joyce with some hard hooks, but he ran out of gas very early. By round two, Stiverne’s mouth was wide open and he was gasping for air. A right hand would send Stiverne down in round three and it didn’t get any better for the former champion from there.
Joyce kept throwing punches and the returns just weren’t there. Stiverne had no energy to return fire and just tried avoiding the incoming, but as he got more exhausted, he was more open for the punches that were coming at him. Joyce continued to press and threw a few combinations that convinced the referee to stop the fight. Stiverne did not complain.
This was supposed to be the toughest challenge for Joyce, but Stiverne did him and the sport of boxing a disservice by coming into the fight so out of shape. This appears to be a total cash grab with the hopes that he could potentially land a power punch early to win it, but Joyce wanted it much more and took the punches and wasn’t too phased. A 240 pound Stiverne could have tested him a whole lot more.
Joyce can now move on to bigger and better things and Stiverne will probably hang up the gloves. The British heavyweight seems to be a little robotic in his approach and has quite a way to go before he can take on the upper echelon of the division, but he’s still a heavyweight to watch. It’s just terrible that he had a 273 heavy bag instead of an opponent tonight.
