Notebook: Joyce starts slowly but drops Hammer four times in 4th-round KO win

Opetaia dethrones Briedis to win cruiserweight title; Shields-Marshall card to include Mayer-Baumgardner unification; Zepeda-Ramirez ordered after Taylor vacates WBC title; Quick hits; Show and tell

Jul 03, 2022

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British heavyweight contender Joe Joyce returned from a year layoff and looked awfully rusty for the first two rounds as journeyman Christian Hammer bounced one clean overhand right after another off his chin.

But Joyce, who has always been able to take a good punch, walked through the shots and eventually dropped Hammer four times in a fourth-round knockout victory on Saturday at the OVO Arena, Wembley in London.

With the win, Joyce maintained his position as the WBO mandatory challenger for the winner of the Aug. 20 rematch between three-belt titleholder Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua.

Joyce had been idle for just a couple of weeks shy of one year since a sixth-round knockout of former world title challenger Carlos Takam at the same venue due to a broken wrist suffered in training a few months after the bout. But Joyce had no issues with his wrist. He just got off to a very slow start against an opponent he was expected to eventually demolish.

“He was tough and he was game. He hit me with some good shots early on,” Joyce said. “I had to kind of work him out and then start landing my shots. He’s a tough guy because I hit him with some big ones, so credit to him and his team for coming out here. It’s been whole year since I’ve been out (to fight), so it was good to be back again. It’s exciting. I love it.”

Hammer (27-10, 17 KOs), 34, of Germany, was stopped for the fifth time but has faced a who’s who of top heavyweights, and usually gone rounds with them. He had been stopped by Tyson Fury and Hughie Fury, but Joyce stopped him more quickly than they did. Hammer had also gone the distance with Frank Sanchez, Luis Ortiz, Tony Yoka and Alexander Povetkin.

He and Joyce started at a quick pace but it was Hammer who landed the cleaner punches early on, including two excellent and clean overhand rights in the opening round. But Joyce never budged then or in the second round when Hammer did it again.

Joyce (14-0, 13 KOs), 36, the 2016 British Olympic super heavyweight silver medalist, was also landing hard jabs and body shots and just a tick before the bell ended the third round he caught Hammer with a grazing left hand that sent Hammer down to a knee.

In the fourth round, Joyce stepped up the attack and finished Hammer. He dropped him to a knee three more times — a right to the body, a left hand during a flurry of shots and finally with a hard left to the body, after which referee Victor Loughlin waved it off at 1 minute, 20 seconds.

“It’s kind of like when you go in the rain you have an umbrella, but if you don’t you probably get wet a little bit. So, that’s what happened early on until I got my defenses up and footwork going and head movement, especially because I haven’t fought for so long I had to warm into the fight a little bit,” Joyce said of getting hit so cleanly in the first two rounds.

Promoter Frank Warren said Joyce will return to action on Sept. 24 against an opponent to be determined. He was pleased with the result.

“We’ll sit down and talk about opponents,” Warren said. “He got the cobwebs out of his system. The other thing that really for me was a worry was the fact that he had broken his wrist. It was a proper snap, so there was no problem with that. He got caught himself a few times, but I’m glad he found his umbrella.

“He had a good variety of shots, some good body shots, done what he had to do against a tough guy who came to fight. While it lasted it was bloody exciting.”

Whomever Joyce faces in September, he remains on track for an eventual championship fight.

“I’m top level, ready for the world stage,” Joyce said. “I’m a proper heavyweight. I’ve got an engine; I’ve got a chin; big heart and big cajones. So, I’m ready for all comers. I’m looking to fight possibly the winner of AJ-Usyk or maybe Tyson Fury. I’m at that level.”

Opetaia wins cruiserweight title

In his first fight against a name opponent, Jai Opetaia overcame a broken jaw early and withstood a strong late rally from Mairis Briedis to take his IBF and Ring magazine cruiserweight titles by unanimous decision in a hard-hitting battle on Saturday at the Gold Coast Convention Centre in Broadbeach, Australia.

Opetaia, the mandatory challenger and Australia’s youngest Olympian at age 16 at the 2012 London Games, won by scores of 116-112, 116-112 and 115-113.

Briedis (28-2, 20 KOs), 37, of Latvia, who was making the second defense of his third title reign and fighting in his eighth different country, said he had been ill for four days and suffered a broken nose in the fight but had no complaints about the decision. He visited Opetaia (22-0, 17 KOs), a 27-year-old southpaw, in his dressing room afterward to congratulate him.

Briedis, whose only other loss came by majority decision in a cruiserweight unification fight in 2018, said he hoped he and Opetaia could meet in a rematch but told the gathered Australian media to “enjoy your champion” and acknowledged that Opetaia was the better man in the fight.

Opetaia got off to a strong start, including cutting Briedis over the right eye in the first round. But Breidis, who was bleeding from his nose throughout the fight, steadily got back into it over the second half of the bout. By the late rounds, Briedis was walking Opetaia down and landing tremendous shots, including one that did even more damage to Opetaia’s jaw in the 11th round, in what had become an all-out slugfest.

Women’s mega card

Boxxer has scheduled a Tuesday news conference in London to formally announce the long-awaited showdown between rivals Claressa Shields and Savannah Marshall for the undisputed women’s middleweight title.

But the news conference alert also added “further major announcements will be made at the press conference revealing details of an historic undercard.”

That will be the addition of a three-belt women’s junior lightweight title unification fight between Mikaela Mayer, who holds the WBO and IBF 130-pound belts and The Ring title — and WBC titleholder Alycia Baumgardner, multiple sources with knowledge of the plans told Fight Freaks Unite.

Top Rank, Mayer’s promoter, had already announced that Mayer-Baumgardner was made but did not announce a date or a site, only that it would take place on an ESPN platform in the late summer or early fall.

But a deal has been struck to add Mayer-Baumgardner as the co-feature of the Shields-Marshall fight. The event is scheduled to take place Sept. 10 at The O2 in London, multiple sources previously told Fight Freaks Unite.

The date and site will be made official at the news conference. The card will stream live on ESPN+ in the United States and air on Sky Sports in the United Kingdom.

Shields (12-0, 2 KOs), 27, of Flint, Michigan, has been the undisputed middleweight champion before, but when she moved down to junior middleweight, where she also became the undisputed champion in March 2021, she vacated the WBO middleweight title.

Marshall (12-0, 10 KOs), 31, of England, went on to win the vacant WBO belt in October 2020 and Shields is aiming to become the two-time undisputed champion against her amateur nemesis in a fight that has been anticipated for years. Shields was 77-1 as an amateur and won two Olympic gold medals. Her lone loss was to Marshall in 2012.

Shields is headed back to fight in the U.K. for the second fight in a row as part of her deal with Boxxer, which also promotes Marshall. Shields shut out Emma Kozin to retain her WBC/IBF/WBA belts on Feb. 5 in Cardiff, Wales. Marshall knocked out Femke Hermans in the third round to retain her belt on April 2 in Newcastle, England.

Shields-Marshall was initially planned for June 25 and then in July but it was pushed back to the fall for various reasons.

Mayer (17-0, 5 KOs), 31, Shields’s 2016 U.S. Olympic teammate from Los Angeles, unified 130-pound belts and claimed the vacant Ring title in November via decision over Maiva Hamadouche in the consensus 2021 women’s fight of the year. On April 9, Mayer routed Jessica Han in a title defense.

Baumgardner (12-1, 7 KOs), 28, of Bingham Farms, Michigan, knocked out Terri Harper in the fourth round of to win the WBC belt a week after Mayer-Hamadouche and then made her first defense by shutout decision over Edith Soledad Matthysse on April 16.

Taylor vacates; Zepeda-Ramirez ordered

Josh Taylor, who unified all four junior welterweight belts to become the undisputed champion by decision over Jose Ramirez in May 2021, remains king of the hill at 140 pounds but is now down to two belts.

He vacated the WBC title on Friday rather than go forward with a purse bid that had already been postponed multiple times for his mandatory defense against former two-time title challenger Jose Zepeda.

According to the WBC, the organization received a letter from Taylor’s attorney letting it know he had decided to relinquish the belt. Previously, the WBA stripped Taylor for declining to face its mandatory challenger, Alberto Puello.

An official from Top Rank told Fight Freaks Unite that Taylor decided he would rather pursue a rematch with Jack Catterall, whom Taylor defeated by highly controversial split decision on Feb. 26 in a WBO mandatory defense in front of a hometown crowd in Glasgow, Scotland.

Taylor (19-0, 13 KO), 31, has taken the massive criticism to heart over the result against fellow southpaw Catterall (26-1, 13 KOs), 29, of England, and rather than move up to welterweight, as he said he might do, or face Zepeda, he wants to set the record straight against Catterall.

To fill the WBC vacancy, Zepeda (35-2, 27 KOs), 32, of La Puente, California, and Ramirez (27-1, 17 KOs), 29, of Avenal, California, who are ranked 1-2 by the WBC at 140, were ordered to fight. They are both managed by Rick Mirigian, who will have to navigate that situation.

In February 2019, Ramirez retained the WBC title by disputed majority decision over Zepeda, who was not yet managed by Mirigian.

“The WBC truly regrets having lost so much time and having mandatory contender Jose Zepeda frozen as well as other fighters in the division,” the WBC said in a statement. “We wish Josh Taylor success in his future inside and outside the ring. The WBC hereby orders Jose Zepeda vs. Jose Carlos Ramirez fight for the vacant championship of the world.”

Boxxer signs Liam Smith

Former junior middleweight titlist Liam Smith has signed a multi-fight contract with Boxxer and will return to Sky Sports in the United Kingdom, the promoter announced.

England’s Smith (31-3-1, 18 KOs), 33, the brother of former super middleweight champion Callum Smith, suffered a competitive decision loss to unbeaten rising contender Magomed Kurbanov in Russia in May 2021 but has scored two notable victories in a row since.

Smith rebounded to stop Liverpool rival Anthony Fowler in the eighth round in October and then stopped former two-division titlist Jessie Vargas in the 10th round in New York on April 30 in his final fight with Matchroom Boxing.

“I’m delighted to put pen to paper with Boxxer,” said Smith, who lost his world title by ninth-round knockout to Canelo Alvarez in 2016. “I had a lot of offers but I’m glad to finally get this across the line and be back on Sky Sports. Boxxer are doing great things in the sport and making big waves and I’m happy to be part of that.

"Some of the big fights and names have excited me and I’m really looking forward to the next 12 months with my next fight to be announced shortly. I can’t wait to get back out there and challenge for a world title at 154 pounds and get everyone talking about me again.”

Smith doesn’t have a variety of title options at 154 because Jermell Charlo is the undisputed champion. He has all four belts and has mandatory defenses upcoming.

Regardless of a title fight, Boxxer CEO Ben Shalom was pleased to sign Smith.

“I’ve always held Liam in the highest regard in terms of his talent, boxing IQ and also resilience to keep coming back and I believe he’s now very close to realizing his ambition of challenging for another world title,” Shalom said. “He’s an icon in his home city of Liverpool where he has a great following and we’re really excited to have Liam join the Boxxer stable where we have big plans for him.”

Quick hits

The other purse bid the WBC had scheduled for Friday did take place with Matchroom Boxing winning the promotional rights to the light heavyweight final elimination bout between former super middleweight titlist Callum Smith (28-1, 20 KOs), 32, of England, and Mathieu Bauderlique (21-1, 12 KOs), 32, a southpaw from France. Matchroom offered $1,069,000, which outbid Italian promoter OPI Since 82, which offered $675,000. Under WBC rules, 10 percent of the winning bid — $106,900 — will be held by the WBC and go to the winner of the fight. Of the remaining 90 percent, Smith is entitled to the lion’s share of a 60-40 split. He gets $577,260 and Bauderlique earns $384,840.

Mexico’s Daniel Valladares (26-3-1, 15 KOs), 28, in his second shot at world title, claimed a split decision over the Philippines’ Rene Mark Cuarto (20-3-2, 11 KOs), 25, to take his IBF strawweight title on Friday night in Monterrey, Mexico, Valladares’ hometown. Valladares, who overcame head-butt-induced cuts, won 116-111 and 115-112 while Valladares, who was making his second defense, won 114-113 on one card.

Show and tell

After the legendary Manny Pacquiao’s loss to Floyd Mayweather in the richest fight in combat sports history, he rebounded to easily defeat Timothy Bradley Jr. in their third fight and then outclassed Jessie Vargas to take his WBO welterweight title. For his first defense, the heavily favored Pacquiao headed to Brisbane, Australia, to defend against undefeated but largely untested hometown hero Jeff Horn in one of the biggest fights in Australian history as 51,052 turned out to Suncorp Stadium.

While Pacquiao did not look great, he sure looked good enough to have warranted the victory in their all-action brawl. Not only had Pacquiao appeared to win more than enough rounds to claim the win, he nearly stopped Horn in the brutal ninth round. Pacquiao, who had been badly cut around both eyes by accidental head butts in the sixth and seventh rounds, had so badly rocked, battered and bloodied Horn in the ninth round that referee Mark Nelson went to the corner to tell Horn he needed to see something or he would stop the fight. Horn made it to the final bell and then came the shock when he was awarded the decision, 117-111, 115-113 and 115-113. I had it 117-111 for Pacquiao and was not alone by a long shot. Most had Pacquiao winning. He held the right to an immediate rematch but declined to exercise it and instead took a year off. Pacquiao-Horn was on July 2, 2017 — five years ago on Saturday. Here is a mint site poster in my collection.

Joyce-Hammer and Briedis-Opetaia photos: Getty; Shields-Marshall photo: Boxxer; Smith photo: Ed Mulholland/Matchroom Boxing

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