James DeGale vs Chris Eubank Jr: Why Joe Joyce is ready to step out of Anthony Joshua's shadow

The Putney-born painter is primed for his first big exhibition on UK soil

It’s hard to tell how much louder the buzz would be if Joe Joyce had won the Olympic gold medal at Rio 2016. Battling against France’s Tony Yoka, many feel the Putney-born heavyweight was caught on the wrong side of a judges’ decision. He should have returned home with a Queen’s honour that day, been snaffled instantaneously by an Eddie Hearn or a Frank Warren, and catapulted into the path of increasingly fearsome pillars to topple.

Instead, Joyce left Brazil with a long-haul road to travel and one that, already in his thirties, he’s had to tread fast. So far, he has had just seven fights, boxed 19 rounds, and never truly been tested. But when he meets Bermane Stiverne on Saturday, a crude but brutish former world champion, on the undercard of James DeGale vs Chris Eubank Jr, the British public will finally get a taste of his mettle.

An introverted character, Joyce majored with a 2:1 in fine art. He prefers Picasso to Muhammad Ali and has a gentle, almost timid persona, to counter his mammoth frame and reputation of being steel-jawed and iron-fisted. He’s an avid lover of Jean-Michel Basquiat – the iconic neo-expressionist who died in his own art studio from a heroin overdose aged 27 – and his amateur trainer, Sid Khan, is the brother of London’s mayor.

Had Joyce’s amateur career fallen in another time, or another era, he may well have been one of Britain’s most celebrated. He has faced future world champions in Cuba and China, Eastern European Goliaths like Oleksandr Usyk and Sergei Kuzman, spent years on the road, and could write a biography on his escapades. Instead, though, he’s been been stuck in Anthony Joshua’s web, wriggling for space outside his predecessor’s shadow.

Joyce’s initial decision to join David Haye’s promotional label was supposed to be a move to detach himself. In reality, it cast him further into a no-man’s land between Britain’s two biggest promoters, and a position where it was too easy to be ignored. Now, in teaming up with Al Haymon and ITV, he is ready to forge a legacy of his own 15 months later.

At 33, he has had the quandary of whether to rush his development so as to fight the best in his prime, or enjoy the easy money on the long ride up. Joyce is already four years older than Anthony Joshua and the same age as Deontay Wilder, he has no choice but to act fast if he wishes to face one of them before passing his peak.

Joyce’s opponent on Sunday, Bermane Stiverne is a test by name. He held the coveted WBC title and was the first man to take Deontay Wilder the distance. But the last time the Haitian was seen in the ring, he was swiftly and brutally dispatched in a rematch by Wilder in the first round.

Stiverne insists he is a “stumbling block, not a stepping stone”. But, in truth, if Joyce can’t dispatch the Haitian before the final bell, his hopes of leapfrogging his way into world title contention are all but shingle.

Joe Joyce has stopped all of his seven opponents (Reuters) (Action Images via Reuters)

At 40 years old, in boxing’s unforgiving nature, this is set up to be Stiverne’s last serenade, farmed out overseas by his promoter to make way for a man of more potential and profit. In turn, he’ll leave with a tidy sum.

The pair have, in fact, sparred in the past. Word has it that Joyce put on an impressive showing over four rounds, before Stiverne, who was overweight and rapidly tiring, called an early halt to proceedings.

“It was four rounds but I think that’s all he could do at that stage,” Joyce said at the pair’s heated press conference on Wednesday. “He says he took me to school but I went to university, if you know what I mean.”

Saturday will be the biggest step in Joyce’s own education. The chance to add lacquer to his palette, and make a case for himself that’s hard for the heavyweight division’s biggest names to ignore, in an exhibition of his own.