By Elliot Foster

Joe Joyce (5-0, 5 KOs) did what he had to do against his late replacement opponent.

The Commonwealth heavyweight champion had been set to make the first defence of his title.

Joyce, 32, knocked out Jamaica’s Lenroy Thomas inside two rounds on May 5 at the O2 Arena in the capital to claim the rainbow honour.

And the Putney man was supposed to face Richard Lartey at York Hall, exclusively live on UKTV channel Dave.

But after the late withdrawal of the once-defeated Ghanaian, Joyce was left with an eight-round contest against Tony Bellew victim Ivica Bacurin (29-14-1, 18 KOs).

It didn’t last very long, as it happened, because the end of the contest came after just one minute and 55 seconds.

“It was good to do my training camp in Kazakhstan and this fight got me to move about a bit and get my shots off,” he said afterwards. “I’m happy to get another win and now it’s time to move on.”

The promoter of Joyce, recently retired former two-weight world champion David Haye, revealed that he will be in contact with fellow promoter Mick Hennessy about potentially putting his man in with current British heavyweight champion Hughie Fury, who won the title with a stoppage over Sam Sexton in May.

Meanwhile, Kody Davies (4-0, 2 KOs) produced arguably the best, most controlled performance of his career to date to remain undefeated.

The Welshman, trained by Gavin Rees, boxed only last month, but he moved his unblemished tally even further with a competent points win, by 40 points to 37, against tricky Bethnal Green-based Congolese man Eric Mokonzo.