Heavyweight Joe Joyce, the 2016 British Olympic super heavyweight silver medalist, will take on the first name opponent of his career in former world titleholder Bermane Stiverne, organizers announced Wednesday.
The scheduled 12-round fight will take place on Feb. 23 at the O2 Arena in London on the undercard of the previously announced all-British showdown between former two-time super middleweight world titlist James DeGale and Chris Eubank Jr.
Joyce (7-0, 7 KOs), 33, has been on the fast track since turning pro in October 2017 and is coming off a first-round knockout of Joe Hanks on the Deontay Wilder-Tyson Fury undercard in Los Angeles.
Now Joyce, who trains with high-profile trainer Abel Sanchez at his Big Bear Lake, California, gym, will return home to England to face Stiverne (25-3-1, 21 KOs), 40, of Las Vegas.
Joyce and Stiverne have sparred together and Joyce was angered by comments made by Stiverne in an interview afterward in which he said he took Joyce to school.
"I had respect for Bermane Stiverne," Joyce said. "We sparred in Las Vegas; he said he took me to school in an interview, etc.
"It got ugly and it made this fight happen. I tried to be respectful of him, but he's rude and was having none of it. He is a former world champion that has gone 12 rounds with Deontay Wilder and will give me a real challenge, but my engine and my power will be too much for him, a fact he should be aware of."
Said Ringstar Sports CEO Richard Schaefer, Joyce's promoter: "Taking on the heavy-handed former world champion Stiverne shows that no challenge is too big for Joe as he continues to march towards the heavyweight world championship."
Stiverne lost his world title by lopsided decision to Wilder in January 2015. Stiverne got a mandatory rematch with Wilder in November 2017 and got decimated in a brutal first-round knockout loss. Stiverne has not boxed since but said he is anxious to return to the ring to face Joyce.
"I told my promoter, Don King, to get me any man on earth and I will fight for the right to prove myself to the world," Stiverne said. "Then the phone rings. It's Don. He tells me Joe Joyce -- a boxer with only seven bouts -- agrees to meet me! Seven bouts? Seven fights and he has the audacity to box me? I have stopped Chris Arreola, Ray Austin, the then-undefeated Kertson Manswell and a boxer with seven fights wants to box me? I said to Don, 'Sign it, take it, grab it. I'm ready.'
"Seven fights and he wants to box me? For me it is a dream come true, but for Joyce it will be a nightmare. I will knock out Joe Joyce and step over him to KO [unified titleholder] Anthony Joshua. I'm primed and ready. The real Bermane Stiverne will be there on Feb. 23 and will knock out Joe Joyce en route to regaining my heavyweight crown."