Joe Joyce’s granite chin was cracked in the amateurs as Sergey Kuzmin knocked him out in 34 seconds and Anthony Joshua also scored a first-round stoppage, but Juggernaut came a long way and wasn’t put KO since

Joe Joyce is one of the top contenders in heavyweight boxing today and rightly so.

The Juggernaut has a well-deserved reputation is a tough fighter with an incredible engine and an even more remarkable chin.

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Joyce’s durability was put to the test again on Saturday night as he faced former world champion Joseph Parker.

The Briton drove through the New Zealander’s biggest punches, barely blinking as he fired back every time he was hit.

Ultimately, Joyce KOd Parker in round 11 to set up for a world title.

It’s not the first time he’s proven his toughness either, having previously stopped highly rated prospect Daniel Dubois after taking his hardest hits without ever being hurt.

This of course raised the question – what would it take to hurt Joyce?

As a full-fledged heavyweight in his prime, it’s possible that even Deontay Wilder couldn’t hurt him.

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However, in his youth, Joyce was eliminated as an amateur.

BoxRec’s amateur records are still incomplete due to the sporadic nature of the sport at this level, but it does have Joyce’s three stoppage loss slates.

The most recent of these came in 2013 when little-known Algerian Hamza Beguerni shocked Joyce at the World Championships.

There is no video of this fight, but it is reported that Beguerni flew out at the first bell and landed some big punches that forced Joyce to two standing eight counts.

A huge right hook ended the fight as the referee called a halt to the first round.

In Joyce’s amateur stoppage losses, it seems like a familiar pattern.

Earlier in 2013, he was knocked out by Russian Sergey Kuzmin in just 34 seconds.

Video footage of this fight exists and shows Joyce once again being overwhelmed from the opening bell.

A flurry of punches from Kuzmin saw the Briton receive a standing count.

He was allowed to resume, but found himself on the ground with a huge right hand soon after, prompting the referee to stop the fight.

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Before that, the only time on record that Joyce lost by stoppage came in 2011 to none other than Anthony Joshua.

“I had to fight twice [in one day]“, Joyce recalled at the Boxing Block Center when describing the fight.

“I had to fight this guy Dominic, and he went southpaw for some reason.

“Joshua watched me fight this other guy before, he was just chilling and waiting.

“When I was fighting southpaw, you have to put your foot on the outside of his front foot, so I was turning left.

“And then when I fought Joshua, I was always turning left, so I was stepping into his right hand.

“So I got hit by a gunshot and the whole crowd was like, ‘Woaaaaah.’ And the referee jumped, ‘One, two, three.’

“I was fine, but it happened three times and I was like, ‘What’s going on?’

“The ref said, ‘That’s it,’ because I got three counts in the first round and you can only have three counts.

“So I lost the fight. I was like, ‘What happened?’

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Of course, those amateur losses of 2011 and 2013 mean little in 2022.

While it’s interesting to look back at a time when Joyce could be stopped, it also shows how far the Juggernaut has come.

Now only the heavyweight elite have a chance against Joyce and in 2023 his world title opportunity will surely arrive.