The unbeaten fighter reflects on his battle with Daniel Dubois, the courage and hope absorbed from his mother, and his love of art
We talk about fear and remorse, audacity and embarrassment and, of course, about art and
boxing. A long conversation with Joe Joyce, the unbeaten heavyweight who seems so calm at the easel and in the ring, meanders along many different paths. We talk in detail about his new painting commission and his recent battle with Daniel Dubois, where Joyce ignored all the predictions to offer a stark lesson in the pitiless realities of the fight game while stopping his lauded young opponent.
But the deeper we go the more we return to his mother, Marvel, and the way in which she has refused to allow blindness to diminish her. She has offered lessons in courage and hope which her son has absorbed as, quietly, he has risen to the point where he could be just one fight away from facing Anthony Joshua or Tyson Fury for the undisputed heavyweight championship of the world.