Hughie Fury has fallen ill and will have to reschedule his heavyweight clash with Michael Hunter that was scheduled for next month.
The Manchester heavyweight was set for a hometown clash with Hunter that would have set the winner on their way to a shot at Daniel Dubois' newly-won WBA regular title. But the pair are now going to have to wait for their highly-anticipated meeting after the Brit pulled out with an illness.
Hunter, from Los Angeles, California, had relocated to the UK to train for the bout and enlisted the help of Joe Joyce for sparring going into the fight. The American has also trained in the past with Hughie's cousin; world heavyweight champion Tyson ahead of some of his biggest bouts.
As recently as last summer, Hunter was a part of Fury's preparations for his trilogy bout with Deontay Wilder, which was also postponed after a similar illness. The Brit was supposed to face Wilder last July, but moved his bout to October and ended up brutally knocking out his rival.
Neither have publicly commented on the fight cancellation as yet, but Hughie's dad and trainer Peter has apologised on his family's behalf, while Ben Shalom of BOXXER has also spoken of the fight being moved. There was a scheduled exhibition bout between Ricky Hatton and Marco Antonio Barrera being promoted by another company that night, which also appears to now be off.
“On behalf of myself and my son, we apologise to the fans but most of all to Hunter and his team," said Peter Fury. "Because like us, they’ve gone through a hard camp and this news is the last thing anyone in boxing wants to hear
“Hughie struggled on through the illness but physically broke down. We look forward to this fight being rescheduled as it’s a great fight for both men and for the fans around the world. Once again we apologise to everyone involved, but health is paramount in boxing.”
“Boxing fans all over the world have been looking forward to this fight and so have the two fighters," said Ben Shalom. "Nobody will be more disappointed than Hughie Fury and Michael Hunter by today’s news, but health is more important than anything. We wish Hughie a speedy recovery while we arrange a new date for this bout in Manchester.”
Shalom had recently claimed that he received "assurances" that the winner of Fury vs Hunter would be next for the newly-crowned Dubois. The Brit defeated Trevor Bryan in Miami over the weekend to be crowned WBA regular champion, while Oleksandr Usyk is the more widely recognised "super" champion.
"We feel that's a fight we want to make," Shalom told Sky Sports. "We've been given assurances by the WBA that that is ordered, winner will fight winner. We'll do our job [against Hunter] and the winner of Fury-Hunter will fight Dubois. Hughie wants the Daniel Dubois fight, he feels like he would have his number. That's a fight we're looking to make."
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Hunter is a fearsome heavyweight, who has only lost once in his career; being defeated by Usyk back in his cruiserweight days. A number of fighters at the weight have turned down fights with him in the past, resulting in his record not showing many big names.
"Michael Hunter is an extremely tough fight, I know how up for it he is, he's training extremely hard," Shalom added. "You never see anybody calling out Michael Hunter.
"When he went to the 2012 Olympics it was widely considered he would go on and do amazing things in the sport. The fact that Hughie still wants the big fights and doesn't say 'I want an easy touch', he's fighting a guy that everybody avoids."
