Daniel Dubois and Joe Joyce will each take a warm-up fight ahead of their autumn showdown as part of a huge summer of behind closed doors boxing action.
The undefeated London heavyweights have twice seen their eagerly-anticipated bout pushed back due to the coronavirus pandemic but a new date has been set for October 24 at the capital’s O2 Arena.
Both men will be in action in the coming weeks however with Queensberry Promotions hosting four additional shows under the lights at the BT Sport studios in Stratford.
Following on from a first show back this Friday, Joyce will headline a card on Saturday 25 July against Germany’s Michael Wallisch. Dubois will close out the series of summer shows on Saturday 29 August against two-time Olympian Erik Pfeifer.
Dubois (14-0) last fought in December, securing an explosive KO finish over Japan’s Kyotaro Fujimoto. Joyce’s last appearance was an impressive win over former world title challenger Bryan Jennings in June 2019.
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Wallisch (20-3) comes into his bout against Joyce after suffering a TKO defeat to Olympic gold medallist Tony Yoka last September. Pfeifer, undefeated after seven pro fights, is a former opponent of Anthony Joshua as an amateur.
“Daniel and Joe returning is obviously huge, headline news and scheduling these fights reflect our growing confidence that Daniel and Joe will be able to finally square off on October 24th,” Frank Warren said. “I spoke to both teams and they both said that as it looks like we’re going to finally do this in October, they’d like tune-up fights first.”
Following Joyce’s return, Lyndon Arthur, originally scheduled to meet Anthony Yarde on the Dubois vs Joyce undercard, will meet Dec Spelman for the Commonwealth light heavyweight title on Friday July 31.
The action returns on Thursday 20 August where Archie Sharp will defend his WBO European super-featherweight title against Jeff Ofori with prospects Dennis McCann and Sam Noakes also on the bill.
Dubois is on action at the end of the month on a card that is also set to feature Croydon’s Sunny Edwards.
