Joe Joyce vs Joseph Parker POSTPONED as Kiwi boxer’s trainer is expecting a baby the same week
JOE JOYCE’S red-hot Joseph Parker fight has been postponed because the Kiwi’s trainer is expecting a baby. The 2016 Team GB Olympic silver winner was scheduled to face New Zealand’s former WBO heavyweight at the start of July. But Irish mastermind Andy Lee – assistant trainer and cousin to WBC heavyweight king Tyson Fury – […]
JOE JOYCE’S red-hot Joseph Parker fight has been postponed because the Kiwi’s trainer is expecting a baby.
The 2016 Team GB Olympic silver winner was scheduled to face New Zealand’s former WBO heavyweight at the start of July.
But Irish mastermind Andy Lee – assistant trainer and cousin to WBC heavyweight king Tyson Fury – is now expecting a new family addition around the same time.
The exciting battle between the Putney giant and Fury’s favourite training partner will now be pushed back into September,
Joyce and Parker were supposed to slug it out for the winner to position themselves closer to a WBC world title shot against the Gypsy King.
But the wonderful news for the former middleweight world champion means their battle has now been delayed by around a month and the hunt is on for a new victim for The Juggernaut.
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Queensberry promoter Frank Warren confirmed: “We were all good to go for July but Parker cannot fight because Andy Lee’s wife is due with a baby the same week.
“Joe Joyce will now take a different fight in the meantime, we have a three-man shortlist and we hope to announce that fight very soon.
“As long as Joyce wins that fight – which we think he will – then we will make that fight after the summer when Andy and his wife have had their baby.”
In an interview with iFL TV, Warren added: “We’ve had to push it back now to September, but in the meantime, Joe [Joyce] is gonna be out.
“So we’re looking at a couple of opponents for him.”
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Despite the delay, Warren is adamant Parker vs Joyce will take place.
He said: “Providing our man wins, then we’re on, we’ll do it, absolutely.
“It’s not our fault, we wanted the fight, Joe wanted the fight.
“Unfortunately it’s Joe Parker who’s not available.”
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Joyce, 36, hasn’t set foot inside the ring since his sixth-round KO victory over Carlos Takam last July.
Parker, meanwhile, hasn’t fought since his decision victory in his rematch with Derek Chisora last December.