Whyte to fight Joyce in Manchester in April

Britons Dillian Whyte and Joe Joyce will headline a heavyweight-stacked card at Manchester’s Co-op Live Arena on Saturday, 5 April.

Former cruiserweight champion Lawrence Okolie will face Richard Riakporhe, who also advances to heavyweight, in his professional debut.

On May 10, Belfast super-fighter Anthony Cacace and Leigh Wood will square off in a fight at Nottingham’s Motorpoint Arena in a new date on Queensberry Promotions’ schedule.

Josh Taylor, the former undisputed light-welterweight champion, will challenge Ekow Essuman in Glasgow in the following month for the WBO European title.

For his first fight since May 2024 when he faced Jack Catterall in a rematch, Scotsman Taylor has signed with promoter Frank Warren’s stable.

As part of a new multi-year agreement, the April card will feature the first Queensberry Promotions event to be broadcast on Dazn’s streaming platform.

“We are starting as we mean to go on and, as you might expect, the heavyweights will play a big, big part in 2025 and beyond”, Warren said.

“I am also so much looking forward to returning to Scotland with the nation’s biggest star and our latest signing, Josh Taylor, headlining and rebooting his career at welterweight, where I believe he can again do big things”.

Former WBO interim champion Joyce’s world-title aspirations were derailed after back-to-back stoppage defeats by China’s Zhilei Zhang in 2023. In July, the 39-year-old was dropped and outpointed by veteran Derek Chisora.

Although Whyte has lost 31 fights to three opponents, “The Body Snatcher” hasn’t really had a meaningful fight since he was only points shy of Jermaine Franklin in 2022.

The 36-year-old returned a positive drugs test before a rematch with Anthony Joshua in August 2024 was cancelled.

After an investigation revealed that a contaminated supplement was the cause of the “adverse finding” in a pre-fight test, he resumed his career.

Orie, who represented Team GB at the 2024 Paris Olympics, will begin his professional career as Joyce and Whyte are about to retire.

The 27-year-old abandoned a career in boxing to pursue a career in the formulaic world of wrestling entertainment.

Cacace, 36, defeated Joe Cordina to win the Saudi Arabian title in a September non-title fight against Josh Warrington at Wembley Stadium.

In his next fight, he was scheduled to face Eduardo “Sugar” Nunez, his unrequited challenger for the IBF title, but he gave up in search of more lucrative fights.