Joe Joyce took a while to get going against Carlos Takam in their heavyweight boxing bout, but he closed the show with a TKO in round 6.
Joe Joyce is a top-rated heavyweight boxer from England nicknamed ‘Juggernaut.’ He fights like one. He’s a massive human at 6-foot-6 with slow hands with feet to match, but both of his hands deliver sledgehammer power. Carlos Takam found that out the hard way.
Joyce vs. Takam battled from the SSE Arena, Wembley in London, England, on July 24. As the summer Olympics begin, Joyce vs. Takam pitted two Olympians against each other as professionals. Takam competed for Cameroon at the 2004 games, while Joyce took the silver medal in 2016.
It was an entertaining fight that saw Takam put in an admirable performance early, but Joyce took over and stopped the show in a hurry.
Before the fight started, Joyce made his ring walk dressed as the Marvel character Juggernaut as an ode to his nickname. However, his costume was so comedically awful that the ring announcers couldn’t identify what he was wearing.
Social media also had a fun time with his terrible costume.
Heavyweight Joe Joyce stopped Carlos Takam in round 6, but is he ready for Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury, and Deontay Wilder?
At the start of the fight, Joyce’s ‘Juggernaut’ nickname played out in real-time. His punches were dreadfully slow and predictable. By comparison, Takam’s hands looked lightning-fast, but the shorter 6-foot-1 heavyweight had a hard time connecting on the taller Joyce. Still, Takam won some early rounds.
As the fight went on, Joyce warmed up, his muscles loosened up, and his hands started to thump the 40-year-old Takam with regularity.
Several seconds into round 6, Joyce sent Takam reeling with a left hook. Sensing Takam was hurt, Joyce jumped on him with wild punches, but after about 20 seconds, more landed, and Takam couldn’t answer back.
Referee Steve Gray stopped the fight 49 seconds into the round, giving Joyce the round 6 TKO victory. Takam protested the stoppage along with a contingent of fans on social media, but it was the right call. He was hurt and couldn’t answer back.
Joyce finished strong and moves on to the next challenge. He’s aiming for a WBO mandatory heavyweight title shot soon, but boxing politics have a way of interfering with mandatory designations.
At 35, Joyce looks several steps behind the likes of Tyson Fury, Deontay Wilder, and Anthony Joshua, but there’s no denying his power, which can change the course of any fight.