Joe Joyce narrowly lost out on the super-heavyweight title for Great Britain to take their silver tally at the Rio games to 23, and total haul to 67.
Advertisement
As Yoka launched into an extended bout of celebrations, Joyce asked: “Why’s he going on like he won it?”
Joe Joyce no doubt will go on to have a promising professional career however after such a good showing overall at this year’s Olympics.
Joyce’s power was a constant danger and he hurt Yoka with a second-round body shot, but the Frenchman established a jab that earned him the nod from the judges again.
“I’m not sure what they were scoring but I thought I landed a lot more shots”, he added.
Joyce had hoped he would be the one going home with the gold to follow in the footsteps of compatriot Anthony Joshua, the victor in 2012 who was present as a television pundit and rooting for him.
“He fought a good fight, countering me and that, but I thought I’d be walking in here loud and proud. He nicked it”, Joyce, 30, a fine arts graduate, told the BBC. “Silver isn t that bad but I expected the gold – it just wasn t to be”.
Conlan, the London gold medallist Luke Campbell and the promoter Eddie Hearn were among several admittedly partial observers who thought Joyce had won the bout easily. The sky is the limit for him.
“I thought I took it to him and I thought I would be coming back over the moon”.
Joyce made the better start, landing some clumping punches to rock the Frenchman. The physical prowess of Joyce became more evident as he forcefully controlled his opponent, moving him across the ring with his hard punching, and by the end of the round leaving Yoka with his mouth hanging open trying to suck in as much oxygen he could in the minute rest bite awarded at the end of each stanza.
The crowd made it clear they disagreed with the judges, cheering Joyce (above) out of the arena, but he is growing exhausted of being robbed by Yoka.
Advertisement
The pair were gasping by the third and final round, with Mossely watching anxiously on from the stands.
