Joe Joyce’s mum Marvel Opara came into talkSPORT to discuss life sitting ringside while her son is fighting, in a rare interview.
Opara regularly attends her son’s fights throughout his boxing career, from his silver medal success at the 2016 Olympics, to his rise in the professional ranks.
She will once again be present in Manchester tomorrow night as her son Joe will face in a career-defining clash with Filip Hrgovic in the heavyweight division.
Opara is registered 93 per cent blind but she loves to attend the fights and support her son.
And during an appearance in the talkSPORT studio, she has revealed she listens to the the talkSPORT Fight Night commentary of her son’s outings in the squared circle.
She explained: “Yes, well it is quite funny with boxing, you don’t have audio description.
“So they gave me the headphones for talkSPORT so I listen to that.
“It isn’t quite the same as they discuss the fight, but I also listen to the audience and the reaction of others around me.
“If I’m sitting at the front, I can hear the exchange of the leather and it’s not very nice.
“But I’ve always been my children’s cheerleader with whatever they are doing.”
Joyce has had a fantastic career at both professional and amateur level.
He has beaten the likes of Daniel Dubois and and Joseph Parker since turning pro in 2017.
Leigh Dawney/Queensberry PromotionsJoyce will have his mum present for his clash with Hrgovic tomorrow night[/caption]
But he has lost three of his last four fights including a defeat to Derek Chisora in June last year, so has faced calls from the boxing fraternity to retire.
It is a crossroads fight now for Joyce, who was originally touted to face Dillian Whyte but he withdrew as first reported by talkSPORT.
And his mother believes it will be an interesting test, against a familiar face.
She continued: “Yeah it’s been a bit crazy. I don’t know what happened to Dillian Whyte.
“I remember Filip Hrgovic in the amateurs, he fought my son at York Hall.
“Afterwards I gave him a hug, I remember him yeah he was a nice lad.”
Life is far from simple as the mother of a boxer.
Joyce has received concern for his performances and continuation of his career.
talkSPORT boxing pundit Simon Jordan has spoken at length about the Juggernaut’s recent endeavours.
And incredibly Opara jokingly suggested she would get Jordan in a headlock over his thoughts, despite admitting she was fond of him.
She concluded: “Oh yeah where is he? I wanted to put him in a headlock.
“Yeah I do like Simon, but you need to be nice to Joe or I’ll have your head off.”
talkSPORT brings you heavyweight Boxing as Joe Joyce faces Filip Hrgovic LIVE from Manchester.
The card is packed full of heavyweight names with David Adeleye taking on Jamie TKV and Delicious Orie making his professional debut aswell.
Listen live on talkSPORT Network and talkSPORT Boxing Youtube Channel from 7PM.
You can also watch live exclusively on DAZN. This is the first weekend of the new era, as Queensberry join DAZN – fully wrapping up the boxing world in one place. Visit dazn.com/boxing to watch this fight and fights every week.’
