Joe Joyce been inactive lately. I heard he might fight Filip Hrgovic in april/may for WBO eliminator. If that fight doesn't happen he should fight Chisora, Parker or Ortiz.
He's wasting his prime tbh. He fought twice in 2020 and only once in 2021. I genuinely enjoy his fights, its just a shame he's not more active. Hrgovic is a decent fight. Helenius sounds ok too although I reckon it's an easy fight for him.
It's a shame he's been inactive, I just hope Warren hasn't side lined him to sit on his ranking until the WBO order an eliminator. Whoever he fights you know it will be entertaining given his style. With Parker maybe fighting Ruiz, maybe that leaves Ortiz without a dance partner, they've called each other out more than once so maybe they will finally fight, but I suspect Ortiz will just duck him like he did Hrgovic.
Warren is desperate for him to have a Dubois rematch. That's probably why he isn't getting a fight. Steve Bunce who is paid by BT to hype their fighters up was pushing for a Dubois rematch in his most recent BBC article, so it tells you exactly where Warren stands on Joyce at the moment.
Thing is, Ortiz isn't what he needs - an aging gatekeeper who's legs have gone and who wasn't ever anywhere near as special as his hype would have you believe. Ortiz gives Joe no challenge beyond what he's had before, with how seldom Joyce fights that's simply not good enough if he's ever going to make it. To be frank, Joyce needs to fight someone with a pulse, not a pacemaker.
True but I don't expect Warren to want to match Joyce up with anyone with a pulse while there's a possibility of an eliminator and a title shot. Ortiz even this faded version might be too much to expect. If Joyce does fight again before an eliminator is mandated I fully expect it to be against someone on Takam's level again. Maybe Joyce/Chisora if we're lucky, maybe Molina, Ajagba, Washington or someone that level is more likely.
Ortiz IS on Takams level - at this point, Takam-Ortiz would be 50/50, and that's probably more generous to Ortiz than Takam. And cmon, Chisora has a better resume than Ortiz and brings a kind of pressure Ortiz would've always hated - Del would be a better matchup for Joe than Ortiz would, especially at this point (which means it won't happen). I agree they will protect him, but they really really shouldn't!
Joyce will be still prime at 43. He cannot be slower than what he is now, it is physically not possible, otherwise he would go back in time.
Perhaps not quite as urgent a case, but he's pretty much in the boat Luis Ortiz was in six years ago. He needs to start getting significant fights today.
You've stated it about a million times already, man. And, while some certainly fancied him to shake things up, his hype generally wasn't ever anywhere near as big as you'd have us all believe. Nor was he a gatekeeper, as you've insisted was the case even back when he was cutting through Bryant Jennings (who'd snagged some rounds from a reigning Klitschko in the course of going the championship distance) and Tony Thompson (who, though decrepit, still had enough savvy to expose an abject pretender, if that's what Ortiz had been) without busting much of a sweat. There are degrees between champ and gatekeeper. Ortiz fell into the category of a solid contender with sound technical quality. If someone wants to call him a gatekeeper now, well, his know-how is above that level, but his physical state isn't up to par, so it's whatever, I couldn't be bothered to vociferously contest it. But there was a time when he had more going for him.
A lot of people had him down as top 5, a lot of people have suggested he'd easily beat fighters with far better resumes - repeatedly and over a long period of time. What would you call that if not "hype"? Jennings was shocking against Ortiz, didn't look remotely close to the man that fought Wlad - even then, it was a clear UD for Wlad even if he did express some respect for Jennings putting up a good fight... Jennings against Ortiz just didn't look like the same fighter - if you ignore Wlad for a moment and look at a fighter who's best win at the time was Artur Szpilka, your believe that fighter was who Ortiz was fighting. Jennings was never more than a gatekeeper level fighter and beating him doesn't make Ortiz a contender. Thompson was finished man, 44 or 45 years old as I recall and had already lost to gatekeeper level fighters in Takam and Scuba Scott - beating that Thompson doesn't do anything to prove Ortiz was ever better than gatekeeper level, it just doesn't. Ortiz technically always did look pretty good, but you have to step up and prove you're a contender by beating more than one gatekeeper and one shot contender - Ortiz never did that, so it's impossible for me to acknowledge him as a contender. Now? I don't think he's really even a gatekeeper anymore.
