Super-heavyweight boxer Joe Joyce will continue his bid for a place at Rio 2016 today when he boxes for the British Lionhearts in the World Series of Boxing (WSB).
The team face the China Dragons in Sanya ffrom 2pm and Joyce will be looking to make it four wins from four bouts this season and push on from his third-place WSB ranking in the weight class.
With the top-ranked super-heavyweight at the end of the WSB season gaining automatic Olympic qualification, Joyce is eager to build on his current 14 points.
“Qualifying for the Olympics is the main goal for me with WSB, so all I can do is keep on winning and hopefully that will get me to the top of the rankings,” he said.
“The two boxers that are ahead of me will probably have to box each other at some point, so that does give me an opportunity to overtake at least one of them, provided I keep on winning.”
Joyce sits behind Filiip Hrgovic of Croatia and Azerbaijan’s Arlanbek Makhmvdov who both have just one point more than him.
Points are accrued by winning bouts, with knockout and unanimous decision victories earning the most.
Joyce has the most points out of anyone in the Lionhearts team, who currently sit sixth in their group with two wins and five losses.
One of those wins came against China, in the Lionhearts’ first fixture of this season in January which Joyce did not feature in.
The Earlsfield fighter goes up against China’s international selection, Babic Vladan, while the Lionhearts team is completed by Ekow Essuman, John Newell and international selections Kelvin De La Nieve and Oualid Belaoura.
Feature image courtesy of British Lionhearts, with thanks
