“Evil” John Joyce believes he is getting stronger for every fight

Somewhere in among all the knockdowns on Saturday night, John Joyce flashed a scowl.

Opponent Imre Simon hit the canvas in their short fight more times than he hit Joyce – going down five times officially plus a number of other ‘slips’.

Some in the crowd were becoming frustrated with the Hungarian, and it seemed like Joyce was too, however he clarified later that “that’s just the evil in me.”

The Lucan welterweight was happy with his performance, and explained to Irish-Boxing.com that “I caught him early with a left hook and his legs went, he was gone. To be honest with you, I don’t know how he kept going, his legs were completely gone.

“I started smashing him to the body, and he kept curling up and he made it awkward for me to land shots because he put himself into a shell. He was awkward, but I was a lot better than him, a lot better than him.”

“He pulled me to the ground at one stage and I actually smashed my head off the ground, it bounced and lifted up off the ground. That got me a little pissed off, but I composed myself straight away.”

Veteran coach Tony Davitt made a point of praising 30 year old Joyce’s power, and the Irish Army Corporal believes he’s getting more powerful ever fight.

Joyce [3(2)-0] described how that “every training camp I think I’m getting stronger. I do a lot of strength and conditioning work before I start my full camp.”

“I train like a madman. Every fight to me is like a title fight, so I train very hard.”

The Dubliner wants to move into big fights in 2018 and the BUI Celtic title won on Saturday night by Jay Byrne is a target.

Joyce outlined how in “every fight I’m moving up, another couple of fights I’ll be well ready for it, I just have to get them fights behind me.”

For now though it’s a case of ‘job done’ for Joyce, who has had a tough time personally in the build-up.

He noted how “I had a bad camp, my mam has spent most of this camp sick, she has a brain tumour, she’s actually in hospital now, so that fight was for her.”

“Every second of that fight was for her. It was a tough aul camp and a tough aul fight, mentally.”

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