“I’mhonored to have this opportunity,” says Joe Joyce, about that moment onNovember 19 when he’ll climb through the ropes of a boxing ring in the centerof The Theater at Madison Square Garden to take down the opponent that tried tokill him five years ago.

One might call it a grudge match:Joe Joyce vs. Cancer. Only this time,Joyce will be fighting to raise money for cancer research and for treatmentslike those that saved his life.

Joyce was just settling in to a newpost at the Japanese bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Securities in 2010, when he wasdiagnosed with testicular cancer and his world was turned upside down.

"Nothing in life can prepareyou for hearing those three dreaded words: ‘you have cancer.’ It was a shock,” he says. “I was 35, I had mywife and two young kids; my son was 3 and my daughter was a newborn. I asked my old boss, who was a cancersurvivor, for advice, and he sent me to Sloan Kettering for a consult. They said the good news was that, of all thecancers, mine had a high cure rate. Sothe next morning, I was in surgery."

Joyce recalls it was a very sad andscary time for his family. He started chemotherapy immediately after surgery,and was still in the hospital when his father-in-law, who had been ill, passedaway.

“That was a very tough time,especially for my wife, Lindsay,” he says.

Over the next year, Joyce wouldendure several rounds of chemotherapy and six additional surgeries. He lost 50 pounds and by his own admission,“looked pretty rough.”

But Joyce looks back and sees asilver lining. He met Adam Glazer, whowould later fight in the 2013 Haymakers for Hope event, during his chemotherapytreatments. Glazer was in treatment aswell, and the two bonded immediately.

“We went to treatments together,”recalls Joyce. “We were even in the hospital for a month together. We kept each other going. We’d hold our IV poles and do laps around thehospital. We were keeping each otherup. If Adam was feeling down, I’d kindof keep him going and he’d do the same for me. We still call each other War Buddies.”

When Glazer fought in Haymakers in2013, Joyce was watching and cheering him on.

“It was an unbelievable experiencefor him, and he tried to talk me into doing it last year, but the timing justdidn’t work out,” he says. “I told mywife I was going to do it this year. We— my wife and kids and I—all agreed that we had to devote ourselves to itcompletely. Lindsay got behind me rightaway—I couldn’t do it without her anyway.”

Though he’d never boxed before,Joyce signed on and started his training this summer at Gotham Gym.

“I started training three days aweek, working the heavy bags and learning the footwork, and then in the thirdweek, my trainer Mike Castle said,‘We’re sparring today.’ And I said, ‘OK, what does that mean?’”

Right away, he says, he “felt verynervous,” especially when his sparring partners— Haymakers teammates Max and Sydney told him they’d both been boxing for a while.

“So I took my first punches and itwas an eye-opener for sure,” Joyce says. “But you move, and you just doit. You learn how not to get hit. I just thought to myself, ‘You’ve faced muchworse—so what if you see a little blood? It’s OK.’ ”

On training days, Joyce isgetting up at 3:30 a.m. to take the train from his home in Long Island toGotham Gym for his early-morning workouts, before heading to Mitsubishi UFJ,where he is now Director of Operations. It makes for a long day, but when Joyce gets home, his kids, now 8 and5, ask him all about boxing. “They’re really proud,” he says.

While some of Joyce’s relatives sayhe’s “crazy” to fight and worry he’ll get hurt, he says his friends and hisentire firm are completely behind him. “The company has a charity committee to talk about supporting differentcauses,” he says. “But right now it’s all about this fight. They’re holding meetings about buying ticketsand making t-shirts for fight night. They know what I went through and they’re excited.”

Still, that’s just the beginning ofwhat makes all the training worth it.

“Adam was right,” says Joyce. “Hetold me that not only would it feel good to train so hard, and to raise moneyfor cancer research, but that all aspects of my life would improve. My focus, my drive, my determination. I already feel renewed in my outlook anddrive. Boxing really has helped me focusin every area of my life.”

A former college basketball player,Joyce felt he’d been in decent shape before he got sick. But after treatment, his focus shifted to hisfamily and his job.

“Then one day I realized I hadn’tbeen to the gym for a long time,” he says. “So this has gotten me back. Andnow, my leg strength and my shoulders—wow! It’s all coming back. It’samazing. The feeling I have when I walkout of that gym? It’s great. Five yearsago, I never thought I’d have the strength to lift my kids again, never mindboxing! It feels great to get myconfidence back.”

Now, Joyce can’t think of a betterway to use that confidence and newfound strength than to beat cancer again—thistime in the ring.

“When you’re going throughtreatment, you fight every day. Youfight to find strength to get to the next day. You fight to make it to the next treatment. When Haymakers for Hope came up, the idea ofliterally fighting for it meant so much to me.

“Cancer took a lot out of my life,”Joyce says, pausing a moment to compose himself. “That’s why this fight means so much. Cancer took my mom and almost took me. So I’m gonna kick its ass.”

Margie Kelleyis a mom, freelance writer, master gardener and sometimes boxer. She fought in the 2013 Belles of the Brawl inBoston, and managed to convince her husband, Chris Fitzpatrick, to fight in theRock ‘n Rumble in May. Settlingarguments has taken on a whole new meaning in their house!