Nigerian-born British boxer Joe Joyce came out undefeated in his match-up against Cameroonian Carlos Takam in an heavyweight fight at the Wembley Arena, UK, on Saturday.

Joyce, born of Nigerian mother, Marvel Opara, handed Takam his sixth career loss and the fourth by knock out (KO).

Heading into the fight, Joyce had announced his arrival as a top heavyweight contender when he TKOed top British prospect Daniel Dubois many months ago.

After that win, it would have been assumed that he would be made mandatory challenger for one of the major boxing titles but his promoter, Frank Warren, decided he needed to clear all doubts as to his status in the division, so he was booked against the ever willing, rough and tough Carlos Takam.

The fight started very slowly for Joyce as he tried to establish the jab but Takam was countering beautifully with the overhand right and landing at will.

The first four rounds were competitive and were fought at a very high pace. Joyce, known for his durability, chin and endurance weathered the storm and started to establish his game plan in round five when Takam started to slow down.

Takam was always a threat though and he kept reminding Joyce to keep his hands up as he had his counters ready.

At the start of the sixth round, Joyce landed a flurry of punches and stunned Takam. He pounced and started to empty the gas tank. A lot of shots landed, a lot missed and it seemed Carlos was weathering the storm and trying to compose himself when, all of a sudden, the referee stepped in and called the fight.

Takam protested bitterly, but it was over and Joe Joyce moved to 13-0 with 12 KOs.

Earlier in the day, British-Nigerian David Adeleye, another heavyweight prospect, moved to 7-0 after finishing Mladen Manev in the fourth round of a six-round bout; it was his sixth KO.

Joyce is now the WBO mandatory challenger to Nigerian-British unified heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.

Frank Warren has stated that he will wait for AJ to fight Oleksandr Usyk and for Tyson Fury to fight Deontay Wilder. If both AJ & Fury win, Warren (who is also Fury’s British manager) said they’d look to rebook the undisputed title fight and then Joyce would face the winner.

It will be interesting to see how it all plays out, given the number of mandatory challengers piling up in the division.