Marco Huck’s team win purse bid for Joe Joyce fight

Joe Joyce will almost certainly be heading to hostile territory for his European heavyweight title fight with Marco Huck. The latter’s team outbid Frank Warren 480,000-358,000 EUR and now has three weeks to negotiate a date and venue for the fight, which must take place “by January.”

Also, Eddie Hearn reports that they’ve made a deal for another European title fight between David Avanesyan and mandatory challenger Josh Kelly. That’ll be a surprise to many, I’m sure.

Not to cast aspersions towards the honorable German Boxing Commission, but Joyce (10-0, 9 KO) would be wise to go for the knockout. Not that that wasn’t already the expected outcome, though; Huck (41-5-1, 28 KO) is a natural cruiserweight and past his best, losing three of his last seven to Krzysztof Glowacki, Mairis Briedis, and Oleksandr Usyk. His greatest heavyweight achievement was a controversial decision loss to Alexander Povetkin in 2012.

Joyce is (pardon my French) slow as balls, though, so perhaps a smaller, quicker man could find success if Huck’s chin holds up. Either way, expect this within the next three months.