Light heavyweight contender Dan Azeez was hit with some last minute misfortune after suffering a training injury only a few days before his scheduled clash with Joshua Buatsi.
Azeez was forced to withdraw with a back injury, and Saturday’s planned fight will be pushed back to a later date.
The bout was sanctioned as a WBA world title eliminator, with the winner being guaranteed a crack at current world champion Dmitry Bivol.
Azeez would like the fight to take place before the year is out.
“I’m obviously not in the best of spirits but it is what it is. The fight is off and we’re looking to get a new scheduled date in the diary,” Azeez told Sky Sports.
“I was having my last real hard session and after the session I could feel a pain in my lower back, and it got worse and worse from there. I thought I would be able to take some painkillers but the restriction, I couldn’t move the way I needed to move, both standing up and sitting down. I was not clear to box after that.
“I know emotions are high I can only imagine how he feels. Hopefully, he understands and hopefully we can get this on. I’d really like it to happen before the end of the year. That’s what it’s looking like. Once we get the scans and results back, hopefully we can actually put a date to it.”
Azeez rejected some of the circulating chatter that he fabricated the injury to walk away from the fight due to issues going on behind the scenes.
“That’s one of the things that’s been most upsetting. I’m hearing the narrative of three weeks out. The show was going to be off but that’s really hurtful. For someone of my integrity, the type of fighter I am, I would never, ever stage an injury,” Azeez said.
“People have worked hard to buy a ticket to come and people have travelled far. I just wouldn’t do that. It’s nothing to do with Boxxer or Buatsi, got the injury just the other day. It was hurtful, especially coming from people in the industry. You’ll have your people on social media and your keyboard warriors, but when you have people in the industry who know the game and the industry talking about conspiracies, that’s really, really poor. I was enraged. You have other promoters who maybe try to make the show not as successful as it was going to be. It’s competition, dirty tricks. People who know me know I wouldn’t do that. I’m a man of integrity and the sport means a lot to me.”