Joe Joyce Wandsworth boxing star Joe Joyce won European Games gold last week, and immediately played down comparisons to WBC international heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua.

The 29-year-old added the super-heavyweight European title to his Commonwealth Games gold medal by beating Russia’s Gasan Gimbatov in Baku last week.

His opponent was rushed to hospital after the bout, but the venue’s medical manager Gunay Ibrahimov said CT scans had revealed nothing untoward and the boxer was kept in overnight for observation.

However, the bout could have been different had Joyce not turned around a first round points defeat to win the final two rounds.

He said: “I was trying to get quite a fast start - I wanted to go to work early and get a good round, but when I went back to the corner I was a round down so it was slower than I wanted.

"I knew I needed to go to work a bit more and stop the shots coming back and have a better defence and just get busier in my attack."

The former Ernest Bevan College man now goes to the World Championships in Qatar later this year, which doubles as a qualifier for the Rio Olympics.

Joyce, who was guest of honour at this year’s Active Wandsworth sports awards, has been targeting Olympic gold since London 2012, where his old friend Joshua took a top gong.

Joyce said: “I guess Anthony has led the way - we're different people and we've got different paths to follow but obviously you look at what has gone before so that you can improve yourself."