Joker John Joyce promises “tough time” for rivals

John Joyce [4(2)-0] is usually a seek and destroy merchant and approaches each fight with serious intent.

However, in Waterford on Saturday night a more fun side of the Irish Army man came out as he played to the crowd upon realising he wasn’t going to be able to give them a knockout to rejoice in.

In the latter stages of his 60-55 points win over Ferenc Jarko, the Dubliner started to call for crowd participation, dropped his hands and found a new way to entertain what was a surprisingly large crowd for a card’s second scheduled bout.

It was something new from the Tony Davitt-trained welter, but he claims once he knew Jarko might last the six he decided to have some fun.

“I enjoyed that. I had the buzz. It was a great atmosphere. It was a bit of craic,” Joyce told Irish-Boxing.com.

“I knew he wasn’t going to go down fairly early on. I caught him with some really heavy shots and he took them well. At that stage, I said to myself no point in trying to knock this guy out, so I boxed.”

“I worked on the stuff we did in the gym and it worked perfectly for me. I took him apart and, at the end, I had a little bit of fun. I enjoyed every second of it. I did everything Tony told me to do and it worked.”

From the outside looking in, it looked as if former Lewis Crocker foe Jarko could be ripe for the taking. Joyce certainly hurt him at least once in each round, but the Dubliner claims he knew his opponent would hang on.

Rather than be disappointed that he didn’t add to his stoppage tally, Joyce was happy to go six for the first time and even more happy to do so at a fast pace and without ever pulling back on his punching power.

“I fight going forward, I am a heavy hitter, I keep going and I don’t slow down so to get six rounds under the belt at that pace is a positive. Anyone that gets in with me is in for a tough time and if he doesn’t have a guard he is going down at some stage,” he added before reflecting on what was next.

“I leave everything to Tony. I don’t make the decisions, Tony does. I trust his judgement.”

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