Back on the night of April 23, when Tyson Fury was defending his WBC heavyweight title against Dillian Whyte, Joseph Parker and Joe Joyce went face-to-face, with Frank Warren saying the fight was all but done, for a stadium event, in July. Fans got excited about the match-up, a solid one indeed. But it turns out that although we are still likely to see the fight take place, we will have to wait a little longer.
Warren, speaking with IFL TV, said the fight will not happen in July, this because of the fact that Parker’s trainer, Andy Lee, will be unable to train him as his wife is expecting a baby right on fight-week. The Parker-Joyce fight is now being targeted for September, with Joyce to take on TBA in a tune-up in early July.
“It has been dragging on,” Warren said of the fight he all but announced as a go back in April. “We got it done and it was all good to go for July. But there was a problem and that is that Joe Parker can’t fight because Andy Lee’s wife has a baby due apparently on the week of the fight, so he can’t train. 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.”
It will be interesting to see who “Juggernaut” Joyce faces as he tunes up for Parker. It doesn’t figure to be anyone too dangerous, not with such a big fight waiting for Joyce (who has not seen action since last July when he stopped Carlos Takam). But of course, if Joyce, 13-0(12) were to suffer an upset loss in his July warm-up, the Parker fight would very likely be off.
“Providing our man wins, then we’re on, we’ll do it, absolutely,” Warren said of Joyce going into a September date with the former WBO heavyweight champ. “It’s not out fault, we wanted the fight, Joe wanted the fight. Unfortunately it’s Joe Parker who’s not available.”
Hopefully Joyce-Parker will still happen. As for Joyce’s tune-up bout, Warren says he hopes to have an opponent nailed down in the next day or so and get it announced for July 2.