Dillian Whyte faces Joe Joyce in April & Anthony Cacace to fight Leigh Wood in May
2025-02-10
Category: sports

Britons Dillian Whyte and Joe Joyce will headline a heavyweight-stacked card at Manchester's Co-op Live Arena on Saturday, 5 April.Olympian Delicious Orie will make his professional debut and former cruiserweight world champion Lawrence Okolie will take on Richard Riakporhe, who also moves up to heavyweight. In another date on Queensberry Promotions' schedule, Belfast super-featherweight Anthony Cacace will face Leigh Wood in a battle between two former world champions at Nottingham's Motorpoint Arena on 10 May.Later that month, former undisputed light-welterweight champion Josh Taylor will move to welterweight to challenge WBO European title holder Ekow Essuman in Glasgow.Scotsman Taylor has signed with promoter Frank Warren's stable for his first fight since losing a rematch to Jack Catterall in May 2024.The April card will be the first Queensberry Promotions event shown on streaming platform Dazn, as part of a new multi-year deal."We are starting as we mean to go on and, as you might expect, the heavyweights will play a big, big part in 2025 and beyond," Warren said."I am also so much looking forward to returning to Scotland with the nation's biggest star and our latest signing, Josh Taylor, headlining and rebooting his career at welterweight, where I believe he can again do big things."Fighters from the three upcoming events will meet at a news conference at the Co-op Live Arena later on Monday, joined by Queensberry boss Warren.
Ex-world champions return and a delicious heavyweight addition
Former WBO interim champion Joyce's world-title aspirations were derailed after back-to-back stoppage defeats by China's Zhilei Zhang in 2023. In July, the 39-year-old was dropped and outpointed by veteran Derek Chisora.Whyte has won 31 fights with three defeats, but 'the Body Snatcher' has not really been in a meaningful fight since he narrowly beat Jermaine Franklin on points in 2022.The 36-year-old returned a positive drugs test before a rematch with Anthony Joshua in August 2024 was cancelled.He resumed his career after an investigation found the "adverse finding" in a pre-fight test was caused by a contaminated supplement.While Joyce and Whyte are nearing the end of their careers, Orie - who represented Team GB at the 2024 Paris Olympics - will begin his pro journey. The 27-year-old snubbed a career in the scripted world of wrestling entertainment to join the boxing paid ranks. Meanwhile Cacace, 36, beat Joe Cordina to become world champion in Saudi Arabia in May 2024 before winning a non-title fight against Josh Warrington at Wembley Stadium in September.He was due to face his mandatory challenger for the IBF title, Eduardo 'Sugar' Nunez, in his next bout but vacated his belt in pursuit of more lucrative fights.Nottingham's Wood held the WBA featherweight title in 2023, but has not fought since beating Warrington in October 2023.