In an age of giant heavyweights, at 6ft 6in and 17 stones Joyce is similarly proportioned to Joshua but the South Londoner, as dab a hand with the paintbrush on canvas as he is with his left jab, lacks the same single-punch power.

But Joshua believes his superior boxing skills will see Joyce crowned as Britain’s third Olympic super-heavyweight champion, after Audley Harrison and himself.

But there is one problem. So far Joyce has not qualified for Rio 2016. Indeed, no British boxer has.

“There are two or three opportunities for qualification left and I am sure Joe and some of the others will will make it one way or another,” Joshua  assures us. “Joe is is one of the most improved amateurs in the world and has all the qualities to be Olympic champion.

“The way they have schooled him up in Sheffield is brilliant. He’s strong, has good technique and has learned how to box on the inside like a pro.

“He says he will turn professional after Rio and though he will be 30 he can be a force in the division. You never know, we may end up fighting each other.”

Maybe. But only if Joyce makes it to Rio where the pro-like qualities that Joshua mentions should at least stand him in good stead. Because for the first time at the Olympics there will be a strong professional flavour in the men’s men’s tournament with the scrapping of headguards and the employment of a 10-point pro-style scoring system.

The no-headgear idea is designed to personalise the boxers, making them more identifiable to the TV viewers; and while AIBA may dispute it, I believe this runs the risk of an increase in cut eyes  and head injuries, of which so we see so much in the pro game.

Otherwise why would they retain headguards for women?

I am not sure either that the "heads-up"coaching technique suggested to avoid such injuries will actually work in the heat of battle.

Also the World Series Boxing league and AIBA Pro Boxing tournament are included this time in what seems a somewhat complicated and over-lengthy qualification process.

However the fact that no British boxer- male or female - has yet qualified has not set alarm bells ringing at GB Boxing’s Sheffield HQ.

Robert McCracken and his coaching team seem to have every confidence that Team GB will have at least a decent fistful of contenders in Rio, with fresh talents such as  Joyce,  Anthony Fowler, Joe Cordina, Josh Kelly, Harvey Horn the aptly-named Muhammed Ali, a world youth flyweight silver medallist, at their disposal.

All are in the British Lionhearts squad for the WSB qualifying event in Sofia in May.

This follows a European qualifying event in April with a final chance in the world qualifier in Baku in June.

But whether this new-look squad can emulate to their counterparts in London is questionable. There Joshua, Luke Campbell and Nicola Adams came  away with an unprecedented collection of gold, with a silver from Fred Evans and bronze from  Anthony Ogogo.

All - save Adams of course - have now turned pro.

This time, with opposition honing their skills in the pro-am series  it will be distinctly tougher, especially with no home advantage and the United States reportedly getting a more impressive Olympic  act together than in their last few Games.

The GB women, like the men, still need to qualify for the three available berths at flyweight, lightweight and middleweight.

Adams, world champion Savannah Marshall and either Chantelle Cameron or Sandy Ryan seem likely to do so.

It will be 33-year-old-old Adams’ final Olympics, because of the age limit, and it seems a shame that after creating history in London by becoming the first-ever female Olympic champion boxing champion, she should have to punch her way through a qualifying process which sees a European tournament in Istanbul in April and the World Championships in Astana a month later.

Personally I would like to see AIBA adopt a system whereby all Olympic boxing champions are given the automatic opportunity to defend their titles at the next Olympics, should they so desire. That’s not only a professional way of doing things, it is also progressive, which AIBA claim to be. Please think about it, Dr Wu.

And thinking of Olympic boxing the name of Sugar Ray Leonard usually springs to mind.

He and his namesake Sugar Ray Robinson were two of the finest exponents of the noble art in history but we tend to forget boxing was served a third spoonful of Sugar, one which may not have stirred the brew quite as passionately as the two more illustrious Sugars but nonetheless has been on the brink of greatness.

Sugar Ray Seales was America’s only gold medallist in the Munich Olympics of 1972 and later emerged as a pro middleweight contender in that decade.

In all, Seales’ amateur record was 338-12 with 200 knockouts. After his Olympic triumph, which like so much else in those tragic Games, was overshadowed by the Black September massacre of 11 Israelis, Seales seemed set for pro stardom but, alas, it did not quite work out.

A rangy, 6ft 1in southpaw he could box and punch and possessed speed and power. But it wasn’t quite enough.

But Seales was not fast-tracked in the same way as one of his successors at the next Olympics in Montreal, the more charismatic Sugar Ray Leonard, light-welterweight champion in a Games in which the re-constituted United States team this time scooped five boxing gold medals.

He mainly fought locally around Washington against obscure talent with little national publicity. In his two most memorable fights, he lost a narrow decision to future middleweight champion "Marvelous" Marvin Hagler, then drew with Hagler in a rematch three months later.

After losing on fifth round stoppage to Britain’s European and future world champion Alan Minter at London’s Royal Albert Hall in December 1976, Seales’ lingering title hopes were finally KO’d in a third meeting with Hagler.

Seales later suffered detached retinas in both eyes, yet kept fighting until told by boxing authorities he could no longer do so. He was subsequently declared legally blind, a situation which led to calls for boxing be banned in the US.

After paying for seven different eye operations, he was left penniless and over $100,000 in debt. Moreover, the operations weren't successful.

Years later, after a further eye operation paid for by sympathetic entertainer Sammy Davis Jnr, Seales regained the vision in his right eye.

He later worked as a schoolteacher of autistic students in Tacoma for 17 years before retiring and moving to Indianapolis with his wife, where he currently resides and, at 64, coaches young amateurs.

Boxing’s third Sugar Ray came to mind as we learned of the recent death of another great American Olympic champion, Howard Davis Jnr, a t59.

As with Seales four years earlier I saw lightweight Davis become one of the five Americans, alongside Leonard, Leo Randolph and Michael and Leon Spinks to strike gold in Montreal, where he was awarded the Val Barker Trophy as the best boxer of those Games.

New Yorker Davis, one of ten children, was a supremely gifted razzle-dazzle fighter, perhaps the finest American boxer ever to win an  Olympic title and one of the best-ever globally, ranking alongside the likes of triple gold medallist heavyweight Teofilo Stevenson and his lightweight Cuban compatriot Mario Kindelan, and the  fabulous Hungarian Laszlo Papp, also a three-times gold medal winner.

Yet like Seales he never won a world professional title, remaining a contender throughout his 36-6-1-fight career.

In a year when thoughts turn to the Olympics again, it is worth recalling these two gentlemen gems of the amateur ring who both touched glory in the Games but never quite made it to the pinnacle of the professional  podium.