Ward and Joyce face crucial APB bouts

By IABA Public Relations Officer Bernard O’Neill

EX Irish Elite champions Joe Ward and David Oliver Joyce will be involved in crucial APB bouts in late May and early June at venues to be confirmed.

Joyce meets Uzbek lightweight Hurshid Tojibaev on the last weekend in May and Ward is in against French light-heavy Mathieu Bauderlique in a battle of the southpaws on the first weekend in June.

Both fights will be over eight rounds.

If the Irish duo win those bouts their next fights will be for places at the 2016 Olympic Games and the APB lightweight and light-heavyweight finals.

The top two ranked boxers – the finalists – in each of the ten APB weight classes will qualify for the 31st Olympiad.

The 2016 Olympics Games will mark the first time that professional boxers (under the auspices of AIBA and APB) will compete at the Olympic Games.