Joyce vs Parker - Discussion and Poll.

You mean, like only the kind that we possess?

Since Joe Joyce and his paradoxical, seemingly inexplicable fast yet slow, athletic yet unathletic, stiff yet agile, clumsy yet graceful style seems to befuddle the minds of so many, I figured I'd give it a go, and see if I can share and explain the subtle nuances in his game, that make him one of the hardest to prepare for and beat, when it seems like it would be a walk in the park. Yes, it's because his in ring alchemy, plays tricks on the mind of both the opponent and the viewers, and like most adept sleight of hand artists, you never see how those tricks happen or see the punch coming that knocks you spark out.

Okay, right off the bat, let's get his most obvious attributes out of the way first. Clearly much of his success is due to his chin, size and stamina. First his imposing physical presence is intimidating, and by standing upright and looking down, lording over his opponent, it's making them feel small and weak, he's psychologically screwing with them, it's the toxic alpha male dominating of space power move. So there's the mental and emotional pressure alongside the physical he's doling out. His intention is to look like a lumbering Frankenstein's Monster crossed with Jason Voorhees. Which is made even worse by the fact that like the hapless victim who's quickly running out of ideas, steam and willpower, are falling to their knees, slowly crumbling, Jason and Frankenstein are unstoppable forces and their relentless but seemingly onenote slow pace eventually mows them down in brutal fashion, like a much shorter slasher film version of the hare and the tortoise. Not all that dissimilar from Beterbiev. Yes like Beterbiev, Joe fights down to the level of his opposition. So when he has an opponent that isn't known for their power, he braces himself in the first round, takes a flush bomb or two, downloads the info, assesses its effect, and if he thinks he'll have no issue with it, he marches forward with reckless abandon, which is also much like GGG. Because he knows, the volume, the pressure, will get to whoever it is relatively quickly, gas them out, and he can polish them off. It doesn't take very long in a division full of chubsters.

However, as he showed with Dubois, much like GGG showed with Lemieux, if he fears the power, he's next to impossible to land clean on. He was able use his reach, and jab, and properly control the range, with ease. Rolling with the few rights that got through, taking the majority of the steam off of them. Part of this is due to his biggest hidden asset, his brutally underrated footwork. His upper body appears so stiff, and tree trunk like, that it often distracts from just how fluid his movement is below the waist. It's his awkward stutter stepping arrhythmic rhythm, his shifting ability (not needing to set his feet and punching while moving), while bouncing in and out of range, his underrated understanding and control of range, his ability to get proper full extension on many of his shots while at range, his one twos and combos at mid range, his short hooks at close range, his frequent feints, his persistent jab, using his offense as his defense, his use of angles, and his brilliant varying up of the power and more abruptly, varying up the speed on his shots, which he deceptively utilizes the most effectively when throwing his fast/slow combinations to the head and body.

All of these attributes always keeps his opponents guessing, unsure of how to counter him, due to his at times underrated slickness and head movement when he wants to roll with a shot, where to block, how to block, and it's the shots you get hit with that you don't see coming, that does the most damage, unfortunately with Joe, that's most of them. So from relatively early in these affairs, his opponent has been throw off their game, left off kilter and unprepared, and ultimately defenseless against his onslaught after sustaining an immense amount of damage in a short amount of time. Those are the reasons why he's a dominating nightmarish anomaly and one of the better boxers at Heavyweight, and the fact that he does all of these things in a such a subtle fashion, that many fairly bright boxing fans are seemingly incapable of processing what they're seeing, makes him even more impressive. It's quite easy to suss out why he's so good, if you know what you're watching. Now go study some footage of Joyce, and educate yourselves on the riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma, that is The Juggernaut.

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