JOYCE OUT TO AVENGE SLIGHT ON BLIND MUM

JOE JOYCE has vowed to punish Daniel Dubois for slighting his partially blind mother when Britain’s giant world championship prospects clash this spring in the biggest domestic heavyweight fight for years. The two undefeated big punchers began promoting their April 11 British and Commonwealth title fight at a media conference attended by the Nigerianborn mother of Olympic silver medalist Joyce. Marvel Opara, who is registered

blind with optic atrophy, called out from the audience accusing her son’s imminent opponent of once ducking a big amateur fight. Dubois — out of character with his normal quiet manners — responded: ‘It’s probably good that if you’re going to be at ringside at the O2 you won’t be

able to see what I do to your son.’ Joyce, who engaged in a minor scuffle with Dubois at the face-to-face photo opportunity, said later: ‘That remark is an even bigger motivation for me to put dents in his face when we fight.’ A potential world title shot awaits the winner — ‘within a year’ promised promoter Frank Warren — but their respective build-ups to this fight could not be more contrasting. Joyce has suddenly parted company with yet another trainer while Dubois has signed a five-year extension to his contract with Warren. Joyce has split from Adam Booth so as to move his camp to the UFC gymnasium in Las Vegas but has yet to identify his new trainer. Each man backs himself to knock out the other. Dubois, 22, cites ‘my power, youthful energy and speed.’ Joyce, 34, references ‘my tonnes of experience and the constant pressure of my highvolume punching’. Don’t blink.