London heavyweights Joe Joyce (pictured) and Derek Chisora will headline at The O2 on Saturday July 27th, live on TNT Sports. It is a domestic collision that appears to have been on the table for some time, with Joyce (16-2, 15 KOs), the former WBO interim champion, having been calling out the man nicknamed "War" since 2019. Tickets for Joyce vs Chisora are on O2 Priority presale today (Wednesday), venue presale tomorrow (Thursday) and on general sale at 5pm on Friday, May 24th from axs.com and ticketmaster.co.uk.
Two-time world title challenger Chisora (34-13, 23) rebounded from his stoppage defeat to Tyson Fury in late 2022 with a decision victory over Gerald Washington in August of last year. Names such as Carlos Takam, Dillian Whyte, Senad Gashi, Artur Szpilka, Oleksandr Usyk, Joseph Parker and Kubrat Pulled have featured on the Finchley man’s resume since 2018.
Joyce has also mixed in strong company, recording victories over Takam, Daniel Dubois and Joseph Parker before coming off second best in back-to-back WBO Interim title fights against the Chinese giant Zhilei Zhang. The Putney man got his name back in the win column in Birmingham back in March when he defeated Kash Ali via tenth-round KO.
Both fighters are striving to return to the buoyant top end of the world heavyweight division that is currently dominating the landscape in fight sports.
“This is a proper old school heavyweight fight that seems to have been a long time in the making,” said promoter Frank Warren. “I remember it being talked about strongly even before we teamed up with Joe and it has always struck me as a natural and obvious fight to make.
“Two top London heavies fighting it out for a place back at the top table promises to deliver a cracking scrap. The winner is right back in business, with no real place to go for the loser.”
The full undercard including Dennis McCann, Henry Turner, Archie Sharp, Sean Noakes and Aadam Hamed plus more will be announced in the coming weeks.