DILLIAN WHYTE will face Joe Joyce as part of a heavyweight card.
The pair will fight on April 5 at Manchester’s new £365million Co-op Live arena to kick off Frank Warren’s new DAZN schedule.
Also on the bill is Lawrence Okolie vs Richard Riakporhe and David Adeleye facing Jeamie TKV to make up the heavyweight card.
Whyte beat Christian Hammer and Ebenezer Tetteh last year in his two comeback bouts.
It came after he was pulled out of rematching Anthony Joshua – who he lost to in 2015 – following an “an adverse finding” in his drug test.
He beat Hammer in Ireland and Tetteh in Gibraltar after resuming his careeer on the road.
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A report from Sky Sports said documentation from a forensic expert concluded that a nutritional supplement taken by Whyte did not disclose all of its ingredients and included a prohibited substance.
Joyce meanwhile was twice stopped by Zhilei Zhang, 41, in 2023 before knocking out Kash Ali, 33, in his return last March.
But he was beaten by Derek Chisora, 41, in July to leave his career hanging in the balance.
Joyce insisted he would fight on and does so in a make-or-break clash against Whyte.
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The chief support will see Riakporhe move up to heavyweight to fight rival Okolie.
Okolie, 32, held the WBO cruiserweight title before moving up knocking out Hussein Muhamed in his heavyweight debut in December.
Riakporhe, 35, heads to heavyweight off the back of defeat to Chris Billam-Smith, 34, for the WBO belt in June.
The Londoner and Okolie have history, once clashing at the Creed III premiere in February 2023.
And Adeleye, 28, is coming off a huge first-round KO over Solomon Dacres, 31, in December.
It came after he suffered the first defeat in his career in October 2023, losing by stoppage to Fabio Wardley, 30, in Saudi Arabia.
Hall of Fame promoter Warren left TNT Sports to join streaming service DAZN alongside Eddie Hearn.
Anthony Cacace, 36, will face former super-featherweight world champion Leigh Wood, also 36, on May 10 in Nottingham.
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And Warren also announced the signing of ex-undisputed super-lightweight king Josh Taylor, 34.
The Scottish star moves up to welterweight to fight Ekow Essuman, 35, also some time in May in Glasgow.
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
