Joe Joyce fights Romanian gatekeeper Christian Hammer this weekend while he awaits his shot at the world heavyweight titles. Joyce is currently ranked No1 by the WBO and is in line to face the winner of Oleksandr Usyk and Anthony Joshua, who fight for a second time on August 20 for the WBA ‘super’, WBO, IBF heavyweight titles.
Saturday’s fight will be Joyce’s first outing in 12 months. In his last contest he beat former world title challenger Carlos Takam as he moved to 13-0 as a professional. The Olympic silver medallist’s opponent, Hammer, has made a name for himself fighting top-level opposition such as Tyson Fury. Coming into the bout Hammer has lost five of his last ten fights and is not ranked by any of the four major sanctioning bodies. But the durable slugger is a master of survival having taken Alexander Povetkin, Luis Ortiz, and Frank Sanchez the distance.
In a recent interview with the Queensbury Promotions YouTube channel, Joyce gave his thoughts on the fight: “I’ve known about Christian Hammer for a while now. He has fought everybody, it is going to be a good fight, he comes forward and it will be exciting. It is one to get me ready for the next fights coming up. I’ve been out of the ring for a whole year now so it will be good to dust off the gloves and shake off the cobwebs.
“It is going to be a big year, this year and next, with some great fights and I just need to be in the right place. I have taken myself out to the right place with this training camp here to bring out the best in me.”
Betting Odds
Joyce win 1/50
Hammer win 16/1
Draw 33/1
*Odds courtesy of Betfair are correct at the time of publication
Full card
Joe Joyce vs Christian Hammer (heavyweight)
Jason Cunningham vs Zolani Tete (Commonwealth super-bantamweight title)
Callum Johnson vs Igor Mikhalkin (light-heavyweight)
Nathan Heaney vs Nizar Trimech (middleweight)
Mark Chamberlain vs Marc Vidal (lightweight)
Micky Burke vs Serge Ambomo (super-welterweight)
Henry Turner vs Jakub Laskowski (super-lightweight)
Tommy Fletcher vs Darryl Sharp (cruiserweight)
Arnold Obodai vs TBA (cruiserweight)
EN 
ES 