Fast Results from the UK: Michael Wallisch is Easy Meat for Joe Joyce

Queensberry Promotions honcho Frank Warren launched the (hopefully short-lived) COVID-19 Era of Boxing in England on July 10 at the BT Sport studio in London. The protocols in place mirrored those implanted by Warren’s associate Bob Arum in Las Vegas with one major exception: referees are required to shower between bouts.

The July 10 card really had no appeal beyond hard-core fans in the UK. Today’s show, which aired live on ESPN+, was different because it included heavyweight Joe Joyce.

A 2016 Olympic silver medalist, Joyce won the British Commonwealth Title in his fourth pro fight and is on a collision course with fellow unbeaten Daniel Dubois. That delicious, twice-postponed squabble is penciled in for Oct. 25.

Warren thought it wise to give both fighters a tune-up before their October collision. Dubois (14-0, 13 KOs) meets little-known German boxer Erik Pfeifer (7-0, 5 KOs) under the same conditions on Saturday, Aug. 29. Dubois is expected to take care of business in the same dominating fashion as Joe Joyce did today.

Wallisch landed a few good shots early, but Joyce hardly blinked and softened him up, scoring two knockdowns in the second, before applying the finisher in the opening minute of the next round. The punch that ended it was a hard right under Wallisch’s left ear. For good measure, Joyce tagged him with a left to the body as he was crumbling. Wallisch was on one knee, poised to rise, but the ref didn’t like the look in his eyes and waived it off. The official time was 0:57 of round three.

Joyce improved to 11-0 (10), but the 34-year-old Brit, who is of Scotch-Irish and Nigerian descent, is more experienced than his record would indicate. Wallisch opened his career 19-0 but has now lost four of his last five, all by stoppage.

Memo to Daniel Dubois: The ball is now in your court.

Other Bouts

In a battle of unbeaten junior featherweights, southpaw Chris Bourke scored a 10-round decision over Ramez Mahmood, improving to 8-0. The referee had it 96-94.

Bourke, who trains in the same gym as Daniel Dubois, hadn’t previously gone beyond six rounds. The London-born Mahmood, who fell to 11-1, did his best work in the last two rounds, but it was too little, too late.

Fast-rising middleweight prospect Denzel Bentley (13-0, 11 KOs) turned in a very impressive performance en route to a stoppage of Mick Hall (15-3) Switching from orthodox to southpaw, Bentley dealt out a lot of punishment before Hall’s corner pulled him out after six frames of the scheduled 10-rounder. It was the second fight back for the intrepid 34-year-old Hall after a 29-month break occasioned by legal troubles.

In a featherweight contest slated for six rounds, Louie Lynn improved to 7-0 (6 KOs) with a second-round stoppage of Monty Ogilvie (9-2). A stablemate of Bourke and Bentley, Lynn had Ogilvie on the canvas twice before the bout was stopped at the 2.01 mark. It was Lynn’s first victory over a fighter with a winning record.

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