Joe Joyce vs Kash Ali: Date, fight time, undercard, prediction and odds

Joe Joyce makes his return in a must-win all-British heavyweight conflict with Kash Ali in Birmingham this weekend.

‘The Juggernaut’ is bidding to revive his profession after these gruelling back-to-back stoppage defeats by Zhilei Zhang, who has emphatically derailed the world title hopes of his fellow Olympic silver medalist.

Joyce misplaced the WBO interim title and valued standing as one of many obligatory challengers to unified heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk that he had gained with an exhilarating late stoppage of Joseph Parker in his first battle towards Zhang 11 months in the past, when ambitions of an enormous payday had been extinguished by the heavy-hitting ‘Huge Bang’, who battered his opponent and precipitated main swelling across the eye that led to the bout being waved off within the sixth spherical.

Joyce vowed to shortly avenge his shock first skilled boxing loss, although the rematch was much more brutal as Zhang – who would go on to lose towards Parker on the Anthony Joshua-Francis Ngannou undercard in Saudi Arabia final weekend – produced a devastating third-round knockout.

Turning 39 in September, time is of the essence for Joyce in his comeback bid, beginning on Saturday evening.

Rotherham heavyweight Ali is 21-2 and coming off a dispiriting factors defeat by Ukraine’s Bohdan Myronets on his final outing in Edinburgh final summer season.

He beforehand reigned because the IBF European champion however has fought simply twice since 2021, scuffling with harm.

Ali is greatest recognized for receiving a six-month ban in April 2019 after being disqualified for biting David Value within the fifth spherical of their bad-tempered battle in Liverpool. He was additionally fined £10,000.

Joe Joyce vs Kash Ali takes place on Saturday March 16, 2024 on the Resorts World Enviornment in Birmingham.

The battle takes place on the undercard of Nathan Heaney defending his British middleweight title towards Brad Pauls and European super-bantamweight champion Liam Davies’ IBO world title problem towards Mexico’s Erik Robles Ayala. The so-called ‘Magnificent Seven’ card is promoted by Frank Warren and Queensbury.

The principle undercard is because of begin at 7pm GMT, with Joyce and Ali anticipated to be within the ring pretty early on – roughly 8pm. The precise timings are topic to vary.

In addition to Davies vs Ayala and Heaney vs Pauls, Dennis McCann and Brad Strand sq. off for the vacant WBO Inter-Continental super-bantamweight title, whereas the WBO European and vacant English welterweight belts are on the road as Eithan James meets Owen Cooper.

Pierce O’Leary additionally takes on Belgium’s Hovhannes Martirosyan with the WBC Worldwide super-lightweight title up for grabs.

Nathan Heaney vs Brad Pauls

Liam Davies vs Erik Robles Ayala

Dennis McCann vs Brad Strand

Eithan James vs Owen Cooper

Pierce O’Leary vs Hovhannes Martirosyan

Zach Parker vs Tyron Zeuge

Ezra Taylor vs Prince Oko Nartey

TV channel: Within the UK, Saturday evening’s occasion is being broadcast stay on TNT Sports activities 1, with protection starting at 6:30pm.

Dwell stream: Struggle followers with a TNT Sports activities subscription may also view the cardboard stay on-line through the Discovery+ app and web site.

This ought to be a really easy comeback battle certainly for Joyce, who must get his confidence again with a commanding victory after these successive bruising defeats by Zhang that flattened his world title desires when he was pushing to fulfill the likes of Usyk, Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua.

Ali is to not be underestimated, however he ought to show completely no match for The Juggernaut and has evidently been picked as somebody Joyce’s promoters are clearly very assured that he can defeat with little bother.

Count on Joyce to return out firing from the primary bell and safe a heavy early knockout to start his path again to heavyweight relevancy.

Joyce to win by early knockout.

The weigh-in for Saturday evening’s card takes place on Friday afternoon. Examine again in then for the outcomes.

Joe Joyce to win on factors or by resolution: 13/2

Joe Joyce to win by knockout or technical knockout: 1/7

Kash Ali to win on factors or by resolution: 35/1

Kash Ali to win by knockout or technical knockout: 11/1