At 6ft 6in and 17 stones Joe Joyce is one the big hits of the World Boxing Series (WSB) tournament in every sense, winning all his four super-heavyweight bouts so far while representing the British Lionhearts.

Note the name, because this is one unusual fighter - a true artist on canvas.

The 29-year-old Londoner has a 2:1 University degree in fine arts and obviously paints a pretty good picture in the ring, having recently gone into the Havana backyard of the Cuban champion Lenier Pero and defeated him.

That's some feat as no other WSB boxer has won in Cuba. A further victory in China put Joyce well on the way to qualification for the Rio Olympics next year, when there is every hope he can emulate 2012's kingpin Anthony Joshua, now impressively moving up the pro ranks.

Joyce remains unbeaten in the current season of WSB, the pro-am tournament in which boxers in mix-and-match national teams scrap without headguards or vests under basic professional rules over five rounds. He now sits second in the super-heavyweight rankings with 19 points, one behind Filiip Hrgovic of Croatia, who boxers for Astana Arlans of Kazakhstan.

The top ranked super-heavyweight boxer at the end of the regular season will automatically qualify for the 2016 Olympics in Rio.

While the Lionhearts have made a somewhat inauspicious debut in this season's WSB, languishing in seventh - and last - place behind the franchises from Cuba, Russia, Ukraine, Mexico, Morocco and China in Group A of  the two-tier tournament, Joyce has emerged as a star turn, much to the delight of Dr C K Wu and the International Boxing Association (AIBA) who had hoped that Joshua would resist the pro game's seven-figure golden hello to be their leading light.

Super-heavyweight Joe Joyce has been the British Lionhearts biggest success in a disappointing season so far ©Getty Images

Instead Joyce is now their flagship fighter, an intellligent, fascinating figure, who mixes real art with the noble art, saying his role models are Muhammad Ali, Lennox Lewis, Picasso and Van Gogh.

An all-round athlete who enjoyed a decent rugby career with London Scottish - he was born in Glasgow but moved south as a youngster - Joyce has also worked as a lifeguard, swimming and diving instructor.

Outside the ring he is is something of a gentle giant, admitting he prefers daubing paint on the canvas rather than splattering the noses of opponents.

It is certainly bizarre, to say the  least, to discover a pugilist who can chat as keenly about the work of another of his heroes, the American Jean-Michel Basqiat, famed exponent of Neo-Expressionism and Primitisism who died aged 27 from a heroin overdose, as he does about slipping a left hook.

Interestingly, two rather more famous heavyweights have also been students of the classics.  Mike Tyson's reading while in prison was Niccolo Machiavelli, Voltaire and Alexandre Dumas, and he claims his personal redemption came through literature.

And the Klitschko brothers - Vitali and Wladimir, both PHDs -  were more likely to be seen with a copy Goethe under their arm than The Ring Magazine.

"Though I am concentrating on boxing at the moment when my body can't take any more punishment I can go back to because I will still be able to lift a brush," says Joyce.

His own personal favourite work of art, produced in a small studio at his London home, is the lifesize painting in oils he has done of Ali.

"My dream is to have an auction of my paintings," says the man with the paintbrush left. "I was always good at art at school, as well as sport. It was at Middlesex University that I decided to go for an arts degree because I found I enjoyed it more."

Joe Joyce celebrates winning his Commonwealth Games gold medal at Glasgow 2014 ©Getty Images

The former ABA champion who won Commonwealth Games gold in Glasgow last year, Joyce was  a late starter in boxing but says he may turn pro after Rio should he get "an unrefusable offer." He'll be 30 by then but luckily for him, heavyweight boxing doesn't suffer from ageism these days, with the top men now reaching their prime in their thirties.

However at the moment Joyce seems more interested in visiting the Louvre than Las Vegas.

"I have an open mind about turning pro. My immediate aim is Rio next year. After that, we'll see. Every heavyweight gold medal winner heavyweight thinks seriously about cashing in. It all depends on what is on offer.

"Boxing comes first for now so the aim is simply to keep winning and maintain my unbeaten record through the season. But my ultimate ambition is to be able to afford a large studio so I can indulge in my passion for art."

Clearly, this punching painter is no ordinary Joe.

Next up for the otherwise lagging Lionhearts is another home fixture at London's atmospheric York Hall on Thursday (March 19) where Joyce continues his quest for Olympic qualification by completing a fistful of victories.

"Hrgovic is in the other group and I will not get to face him in the regular season, so I just need to focus on what I can do, keep winning and hope that he slips-up at some point as he will have to face some good opponents."

Joyce will be joined at York Hall by three other members of the GB Boxing squad, welterweight Ekow Essuman, lightweight, Luke McCormack and light-heavyweight, Joshua Buatsi. The match will be shown live on BT Sport 2 at 8.00pm.

However, middldeweight Antony Fowler's hopes of qualifying via WSB took a setback last week as he lost his first match of the season to guest boxer Hurshidbek Normatov from Uzbekistan as the British Lionhearts were defeated 4-1 by the Ukraine Otamans.

Fowler, cousin of former England and Liverpool footballer Robbie, is rated with Joyce as one of GB's oustanding hopes for Olympic glory after stylishly winning Commonwealth gold and World Championship bronze.

The defeat means Fowler is currently joint fifth in WSB's middleweight rankings and will need to win his next two contests against Algeria and Cuba to have a chance of finishing the season in one of the top two places and qualifying for Rio.

James DeGale is seeking to become the first British Olympic gold medallist to win a professional world title ©Getty Images

No doubt James DeGale is keeping check on the fortunes of GB's prospective Olympians. The middeweight gold medallist from Beijing has moved a vital step closer in the race with Joshua and Luke Campbell to become Britain's first Olympic champion to win a professional world title.

But he must travel to the United States to do so against American super-middleweight Andre Dirrell.

DeGale's promoter Eddie Hearn was outbid by Dirrell's backers, who tabled £650,000 ($969,000/€905,000) more than his £1.4 million (£2.1 million/€1.9 million) offer, and the clash for the IBF belt vacated by Carl Froch will be held in the US a date and venue to be decided. It is mooted it could be on the undercard of the Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao blockbuster in Las Vegas on May 2.

Hearn had hoped to stage the contest at London's O2 on April 25, but saw his plans scuppered by Dirrell's team led by Al Haymon, the oddly publicity-shy impresario who has taken over from Don King as the new main man in boxing, with Mayweather also among 100 plus clientele of with clout.

The loss of home advantage is a setback for DeGale, who has only fought once before outside the UK, but will be well paid for his trip to the States and crucially the US is no longer alien territory for British fighters, as welterweight Kell Brook ably demonstrated last August when claiming a split decision victory Shawn Porter for the IBF belt.

The29-yar-old DeGale insists he is relaxed about having to travel to the US. "A ring is a ring and I'm still making history!" he sagely declares.

Just like Joe Joyce, the Rembrant of the ring.

Alan Hubbard is a sports columnist for the Independent on Sunday and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Games, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire