Joe Joyce to return on Deontay Wilder undercard

Promoter Richard Schaefer tells ESPN that the plan for heavyweight prospect Joe Joyce is to have him return on Deontay Wilder’s undercard, likely coming on May 18, and then have the 2016 Olympic silver medalist challenge for the WBA “world” title at some point.

Joyce (8-0, 8 KO) featured on Wilder’s last undercard on Dec. 1, opening the Wilder-Fury pay-per-view with a first round stoppage of Joe Hanks. He followed that up with a domination of former titleholder Bermane Stiverne on Feb. 23.

The WBA “world” title is currently held by Manuel Charr, who will defend eventually against Trevor Bryan now that the whole Fres Oquendo saga is mercifully over. The winner of Charr-Bryan isn’t really a huge step on paper for Joyce, and would realistically be a perfectly reasonable fight for him in the near future. Joyce is 33, so he’s older than a lot of people realize, and his options are either to move relatively quickly or, you know, wait until he’s 38 to get a title shot, which seems kind of pointless.