David Oliver Joyce (born 12 February 1987) is an Irish

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

. As an

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

, he won gold medals at the

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; 2009 Iran ...

and 2014 European Union Championships, and competed at the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics ( pt, Jogos Olímpicos de Verão de 2016), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad ( pt, Jogos da XXXI Olimpíada) and also known as Rio 2016, was an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 20 ...

Personal life

Joyce was born into a boxing family in

Mullingar Mullingar ( ; ) is the county town of County Westmeath in Ireland. It is the third most populous town in the Midland Region, with a population of 20,928 in the 2016 census. The Counties of Meath and Westmeath Act 1543 proclaimed Westmeat ...

, Co. Westmeath. His cousins

John Joe Joyce John Joe Joyce (born 17 October 1987) is an Irish amateur boxer who represented Ireland in the 2008 Olympic Games in the light welterweight division. Joyce was born in Mullingar, County Westmeath. Joyce is a national Irish boxing champion wh ...

and Joe Ward are also international boxers. Joyce is married to Melissa and has three children: Amber, Mickey Joe and Reanna.David Oliver Joyce
. nbcolympics.com

Amateur career

In April 2016, he qualified for the

in Rio de Janeiro, beating Volkan Gockek on points in a fight in Turkey. He reached the last sixteen of the men's lightweight competition, defeating Andrique Allisop in a first round bout by unanimous decision.

Professional career

Joyce made his professional debut on 7 June 2017, at the

Waterfront Hall Belfast Waterfront is a multi-purpose conference and entertainment centre, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, designed by local architects' firm Robinson McIlwaine. The hall is located in Lanyon Place, the flagship development of the Laganside Corpo ...

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

. In a six-round bout against Gabor Kovacs, he won via second round

technical knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

(TKO).

Professional boxing record

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Joyce, David Oliver Boxers at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic boxers of Ireland Irish male boxers 1987 births Living people People from Mullingar Featherweight boxers