Heavyweight title hopeful Joe Joyce, is set to begin his comeback to the peak of the heavyweight division this month, but has now turned down the opportunity to fight for the European title.
Joyce was twice knocked out by Zhilei Zhang during 2023, losing his WBO interim heavyweight title and mandatory challenger position for a shot at world honours, as well as his undefeated record.
After such a demoralising twelve months, Joyce will return to action on March 16th, taking on Kash Ali (21-2), but was called to take on Granit Shala (15-0) for the EBU title afterwards.
One day before the bout was to go to purse bids, Joyce has withdrawn, just weeks after his rival Daniel Dubois pulled out of a potential clash for the belt, leaving Germany’s Shala without an opponent and his promoter Ingo Volckmann frustrated, fightnews.com reports.
“It’s really annoying that this fight doesn’t happen either. I would also have loved to bring him to Germany and have him as the second main fight on April 6th in Falkensee before Jack [Culcay’s] world championship fight.
“We are currently exploring the possibilities with our matchmaker Hagen Döring and are also talking to Granit’s team.”
Rather than fighting on the undercard of the upcoming Culcay vs. Bakhram Murtazaliev card, where a new IBF super-welterweight champion will be crowned, Shala will now fight the following week in Charlottenbury on April 13th.
Whether Shala will fight for the European title on that night remains to be seen, but next in line is undefeated Ukrainian Oleksandr Zakhozhyi (18-0), with a deadline of March 13th set for offers, before the showdown would go to purse bids.