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Joe Joyce could finally get Olympic gold after Rio 2016 scandal as well as a lounge and Wikipedia page to be proud of
JOE JOYCE will dramatically redecorate his living room and Wikipedia page if his dodgy-looking Rio 2016 silver is upgraded to a gold.
The Putney heavyweight appeared to have outboxed Frenchman Tony Yoka at the Games and be heading for the same mega-money pro start Anthony Joshua enjoyed four years early.
Instead, the boxing world was shocked by Yoka’s hand being raised and Joyce had to start his career from the much more modest spot of second place.
But this week it was revealed that professor Richard McLaren, the man who uncovered Russia’s state-sponsored doping programme, is investigating boxing results at the Games for Aiba, the disgraced International Boxing Association.
Irish hero Michael Conlan’s iconic one-fingered salute to his own robbery in Brazil helped catapult him into the headlines and paid ranks but Joyce, 35, has had to wait a long time for any possible justice.
“I did see the news,” The Juggernaut told SunSport as he announced his July 24 clash with Carlos Takam.
“I saw that Michael Conlan was mentioned specifically but I didn’t see my name.
“It is good that it is going to be properly looked at and potentially could get a gold medal.
“Getting the gold now would be nice, it wouldn’t change much about my life but it definitely looks better on my Wikipedia.
"And it might add another zero on some of my future purses.
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“I keep the silver at home tucked away but if I end up with the gold I will probably whip it out and get it displayed properly alongside my belts.”
Aiba initially denied any corruption accusations but were eventually forced into a huge overhaul, including the sacking of a number of judges.
Qualification for the 2020 Tokyo games was taken off Aiba’s hands by the IOC so they are desperately trying to clean up their ranks now to restore any shred of respect.
And Joyce has had to cope with niggling doubts for the last five years that all the scorecards were stacked against him for the biggest fight of his life.
“In the ring, when my arm wasn’t raised, I did feel it was down to more than bad judging,” he said.
“I felt like Yoka was supposed to win the gold even before the first bell.
"I think there was something happening in France at the time and an Olympic boxing gold was seen at the time as something that would be very good for morale over there.
“I also knew that one of the main Aiba officials was from France so he would of course want his heavyweight countryman to win.
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""It would be good to get that closure but a lot of those benefits that come when an Olympic gold medalist turns over as a pro are long gone now.
"But it would be nice to have that shiny gold medal once and for all."