Joe Joyce has admitted that he has struggled with frustrations while watching his rival Daniel Dubois ascend to WBA regular heavyweight champion.
The pair finally met after a number of coronavirus-related setbacks in November of 2020, with Joyce ultimately handing Dubois his sole loss with a big stoppage. But injuries and other issues have kept the London native on the sidelines, where he has been forced to witness Dubois rise up the ranks, and last month win a version of the heavyweight title.
Oleksandr Usyk is the more recognised and legitimate WBA heavyweight champion, holding the "super" title as well as the WBO and IBF belts. But Dubois is now being touted as a world heavyweight champion alongside Queensberry Promotions stablemate Tyson Fury as well as Usyk.
And speaking with Mirror Fighting ahead of his ring return tonight against Christian Hammer, Joyce explained how he has found it difficult to watch his rival move through the ranks at a quicker pace despite his loss. "It's been frustrating, to be honest," he said.
"I was ranked highly with the WBA at one stage and I wanted to fight Manuel Charr who was also the regular champion at one stage. So for Dubois to beat Trevor Bryan easily and get a version of the world title before me is very frustrating.
"It's unfortunate how my career has been going, but I do believe that I will get there. I have faith in my abilities and I will become heavyweight champion of the world - I'm looking at next year, 2023 to be my year."
And Joyce believes that at some point before he hangs up the gloves that he will have to run into Dubois again. The pair were evenly matched until he broke his rival's eye socket and forced him to quit in the tenth.
However, their career trajectories have been drastically different since. Dubois walked right back into an interim title fight with the WBA before jetting out to America to make his Stateside debut on Jake Paul's undercard when he fought Tyron Woodley.
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And he feels that with his standings as the top fighter in the WBO, coupled with Dubois' WBA belt, legitimate or not, the pair are in fine standing to both become champions at the weight. This would ultimately lead to a future unification bout if they both were to end up with gold.
"I think it's probably being lined up like that," Joyce said of a rematch. "I may have to rematch him at some point because we'll probably both end up as heavyweight champions of the world and have to unify the division."
Before all of that, however, Joyce must first get rid of the game German Hammer at the OVO Arena Wembley tonight. The fight will air live on BT Sport 1 with the event broadcast beginning at 7.30pm.
