Joe Joyce vs. Devin Vargas added to Garcia-Porter card on Sept.8

Boxingnews24.com

By Trevor McIntyre

Heavyweight prospect Joe Joyce will be facing 2004 U.S Olympian Devin Vargas in a scheduled 10 round fight on the undercard of the welterweight clash between Danny Garcia and Shawn Porter on September 8 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

It’s unknown if Joyce vs. Vargas will be televised on Showtime Boxing in the U.S. The September 8 Garcia-Porter undercard has the following interesting fights:

– Yordenis Ugas vs. Cesar Miguel Barrionnuevo

– Adam Kownacki vs. Charles Martin

– Amanda Serrano vs. Yamila Esther Reynoso

2016 Olympic Silver medalist Joyce (5-0, 5 KOs) is being moved in a speedy manner by his promoters. The 6’6” Joyce is 32-years-old, and he cannot afford to be moved slowly like other prospects. Joyce turned pro in 2017, and he’s looked impressive in stopping Lenroy Thomas and Ian Lewison. Those are solid B-level heavyweights, and Joyce ran over them like a steam engine in knocking them both out.

Now trained by Abel Sanchez in Big Bear, California, Joyce is rubbing shoulders with the likes of middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin and former IBF/WBA cruiserweight champion Murat Gassiev. It’s a good situation for the pressure fighter Joyce, as Golovkin and Gassiev are two of the best pressure fighters in boxing. Sanchez is an excellent trainer, and he seems to excel at training aggressive fighters that compete at a fast pace like Joyce.

Joyce wants to get a big name contender to fight him, but he’s not have any luck at getting any of them to agree to face him as of yet. Joyce has already called out Dereck Chisora, Dillian Whyte and Jarrell ‘Big Baby’ Miller. None of them has shown interest in fighting him.

The 36-year-old Devon Vargas (20-5, 8 KOs) has seen his once promising career go downhill since losing to Kevin Johnson by a 6th round knockout in 2009. Vargas was unbeaten at the time that his management put him in against a prime Johnson, who he was in no way ready for at that early juncture in his career. This was Johnson at his best. In his next fight, Johnson challenged World Boxing Council heavyweight champion Vitali Klitschko for his title and was beaten by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision. The loss for Vargas has led to a career free-fall with him losing to Andrzej Wawrzyk, Jason Bergman, Dominic Breazeale and Andy Ruiz Jr. Vargas’ lack of size of the heavyweight division has put him at a disadvantage against a lot of the guys he’s fought. Vargas, who weighs in for his fights in the low 220s, should have moved down to cruiserweight once he started having problems at heavyweight in 2009.