John Joyce aims to continue impressing following pro game “heads-up”

A little over a year ago John Joyce [2(1)-0] decided he would turn pro.

While he would have to wait way longer than expected for his debut, the Lucan welterweight is now approaching his third fight and closing in on title contests.

The 30 year old boxes on the Celtic Clash 4 bill at the National Stadium this Saturday night looking to round off a first year which has gone even better than he had hoped.

“I’m looking forward to finishing off the year on a high,” he told Irish-Boxing.com.

“3-0 for my first year is pretty good, in my opinion.”

“I wasn’t expecting to have had as many fights to be honest, I thought I would have only had one, especially then with the one in April that was called off. But, I’m almost glad it happened because that gave me so much time to train and develop.”

“I probably had a heads-up on most guys turning over, because I’ve been sparring pros since last November. A lot of people say that I look like I’ve been a pro a while, with the way I compose myself.”

The Irish Army colonel is getting fitter and stronger by the day and wants to kick on in the new year.

Joyce outlined how “my muscle mass is getting bigger but my fat content is getting lower. I’m in great shape. I’m an all-year-round trainer.”

“Hopefully, next year, we’ll get four or five fights maybe, try get up to double figures even, maybe 10-0 with a bit of luck, we’ll see what happens.”

“I’d be fit enough to fight every two weeks. I’m always fit and ready to go”

“We’ll do a four rounder this time, do my six rounder next time, then I’ll be looking at a title. I think I’ll be next out in March

Joyce can’t get ahead of himself though, and first must defeat Hungarian Imre Simon [8(1)-20(14)] as the Tony Davitt boxer looks to build on wins over Patryk Jackowiak and Jamesy Gorman.

The opponent is a late enough replacement, with Joyce only learning of him last week.

This is no issue to the Dub though, who is keen to continue impressing.

“It doesn’t make a difference to me,” he stated. “Whoever I’m in with, I’ll fight. I’ll figure him out in the first round and I’ll go from there.”

“It was good to impress in my first fight, show that I have a bit of knockout power. Second fight I showed that I could box as well.”

“I got people to see that I don’t always have to go for the knockout and, when I need to, I can box. I can adapt, I’m an all-round fighter rather than a lad who just tries to knock you out.”

Photo Credit: Ricardo Guglielminotti – The Fighting Irish (@ThefIrish)