Unbeaten heavyweight contender Joe Joyce will face Christian Hammer in a stay-busy fight Saturday night in London.
JOE JOYCE (13-0, 12 KOS) VS. CHRISTIAN HAMMER (27-9, 17 KOS)
- Date: Saturday, July 2
- Time: 2 p.m. ET / 11 a.m.. PT (main event later in show)
- Where: OVO Arena Wembley, London
- TV/Stream: ESPN+
- Cost: $6.99 per month or $69.99 annually
- Division: Heavyweight (unlimited)
- Rounds: 12
- At stake: No major titles
- Pound-for-pound ranking: None
- Odds: NA
- Also on the card:Â Jason Cunningham vs. Zolani Tete, junior featherweights; Callum Johnson vs. Igor Mikhalkin, light heavyweights; Mark Chamberlain vs. Marc Vidal, lightweights; Nathan Heaney vs. Nizar Trimech, middleweights
- Prediction: Joyce KO 5
- Background: Heavyweight contender Joe Joyce was scheduled to face former titleholder Joseph Parker in what would’ve been an important fight but Parker pulled out because trainer Andy Lee, whose wife recently gave birth, was unavailable. Thus, the 2016 Olympic silver medalist from London will face journeyman Christian Hammer in what amounts to a stay-busy fight as he awaits bigger opportunities. Joyce, 36, recorded a break-through victory when he stopped Daniel Dubois in November 2020. He followed that with a sixth-round stoppage of veteran Carlos Takam in July of last year, his most-recent fight. Joyce has already set a date for his next fight, Sept. 24. And he’s pushing Parker to face him then. Hammer, a 34-year-old Romanian-born German, is 5-5 in last 10 fights, although he’s coming off first-round knockout victory over journeyman Drazan Janjanin on May 28. He has been a stepping stone for a number of elite opponents, including Tyson Fury, Alexander Povetkin, Luis Ortiz, Tony Yoka and Frank Sanchez.
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