Ward and DOJ to fight in last APB bouts this month

Joe Ward and David Oliver Joyce will be involved in their last AIBA Pro Boxing (APB) fights of the season on July 18th next.

The ex Irish Elite light-heavy and lightweight champions will be in action in Sofia, Bulgaria and Tashkent, Uzbekistan for rankings positions.

Ex European Elite champion Ward meets Joe Kennedy St Pierre of Mauritius, who holds a surprise victory over Russia’s Nikita Ivanov this year, in the Bulgarian capital.

Three-time European Union champion Joyce is slated to face Robson Conceicao in Tashkent.

The Brazilian beat the Ukraine’s two-time Olympic champion Vasyl Lomachenko at the 2011 AIBA World Championships in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2011.

But the result was overturned on appeal and Lomachenko went on the win gold. Ward lost on a 4th round TKO to France’s Mathieu Bauderkique in his last APB fight earlier this month and Joyce was unlucky not to get the decision over Uzbek lightweight Hurshid Tojibaev in Uzbekistan on May 30th.

Head coach Billy Walsh and Irish coach Eddie Bolger will be working the Joyce and Ward corners in Tashkent and Sofia.