Davey Oliver Joyce has warned Ionut Baluta that he’ll be taken out of his comfort zone during their showdown on Saturday.

Joyce (12-1, 9 KOs) defends his WBO European Jr. Featherweight title against Baluta (13-2, 2 KOs) on the undercard of Josh Taylor’s world title defence against Apinun Khongsong – live on BT Sport and ESPN+.

Baluta heads into the fight on the back of his huge win over TJ Doheny earlier this year, but Joyce feels he’s seen plenty of weaknesses to exploit.

Joyce said: “I’ll be setting a higher pace against him and taking him out of his comfort zone. He doesn’t like getting attacked to the body and I’ll exploit that.

“I’m used to fighting in empty arenas as I’ve been boxing as an amateur all my life. You do that in some different parts of the world for Ireland with nobody cheering you on.

“Winning this fight will bring me one step closer to a world title. I have a great team with me in MTK Global and I have complete faith in them.”

Saturday’s huge card will also see Charlie Edwards make his bantamweight debut against Kyle Williams, plus Jordan Flynn goes up against Jamie Quinn.

Via mtkglobal.com

The upcoming trio of stacked MTK Fight Night events will each take place 24 hours later – after the shows were moved to Wednesday evenings.

The new dates for the upcoming behind-closed-doors shows at the LS-Live in Wakefield are August 12, August 26 and September 2, and will be broadcast live in the US on ESPN+ in association with Top Rank and worldwide on IFL TV.

WBO bouts on Wednesday 26 August, and sees unbeaten star Lewis Crocker (11-0, 6 KOs) go up against former Southern Area champion Louis Greene (12-1, 7 KOs) for the vacant WBO European Welterweight title.

David Oliver Joyce (12-1, 9 KOs) defends his WBO European Junior Featherweight title against recent TJ Doheny conqueror Ionut Baluta (13-2, 2 KOs), while amateur sensation James McGivern makes his professional debut against an opponent to be announced.

MTK Global Chief Strategy Officer Paul Gibson said: “There are a lot of unique challenges to pulling a card together in the current climate but these fifteen matches guarantee some cracking fights.

“The remit was to make as many quality 50-50s as possible and the fact we’ve been restricted to matching domestically only adds to intrigue of the contests. It’ll be action from first bell to last.”

MTK Global Vice-President Jamie Conlan added: “Our first show on August 12 sees Jono Carroll returning following his incredible victory against Scott Quigg in March.

“Sean McComb and Siar Ozgul always bring excitement, so having them face each other is certain to lead to fireworks, and then we have two outstanding 50-50 fights as Craig MacIntyre faces Darren Surtees, and Sahir Iqbal goes up against Maredudd Thomas.

“Pierce O’Leary rounds off our first show, and he has looked tremendous in his career so far, so we can’t wait to see him back in the ring.

“Our second card on August 26 is just as packed, with Lewis Crocker competing for his first title in a terrific fight against Louis Greene, and it’s great to have Lee McGregor back too after his brilliant bout with Kash Farooq in November.

“Gary Cully against Kieran Gething is an extremely interesting fight that I can’t wait to see unfold, and the fans will see a star for the future when James McGivern is in action.

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