TNT Sports
Joe Joyce completes British medal haul with silver after narrow defeat
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Published 21/08/2016 at 20:44 GMT+1
Joe Joyce narrowly lost out on the super-heavyweight title for Great Britain to take their silver tally at the Rio games to 23, and total haul to 67.
Eurosport
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The 31-year-old, who didn’t take up boxing until he was 22, lost to France’s Tony Yoka, the reigning world champion, on a split decsion.
Joyce narrowly lost the first two rounds and couldn’t do enough in the third to turn it around.
The ringside judges favoured Yoka's cleaner work over Joyce's strength and aggression and the verdict was greeted by a number of boos.
Joyce had been seeking to emulate his former team-mate Anthony Joshua, the London 2012 champion who was watching at ringside.
But Yoka's greater accuracy found the favour of the judges, leaving Joyce with little hope in the last round but to press for an unlikely knockout.
Joyce's style had been derided by Yoka in the build-up to the final, with the Frenchman describing him as a "robot" and questioning his punching power.
The pair had unfinished business after a controversial World Championship semi-final in Doha last year, when Yoka was controversially given the verdict and went on to win the title.
It takes Britain's total medal count to 67 but Joyce was gutted after the victory and thought he had won.
"I thought I'd be in a different mood coming into here," Joyce told reporters. "It's just disappointing. I gave it my all, I thought I landed my shots and was penetrating his guard.
"He fought a good fight, countering me and that, but I thought I'd be walking in here loud and proud.
"I'm not sure what they were scoring but I thought I landed a lot more shots," he added. "I'll watch it back and see where I went wrong."
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