Heavyweight Daniel Dubois’ world-title defence against Joseph Parker on Saturday is off after the champion fell ill two days before the fight.
The Briton was being medically evaluated in Saudi Arabia and missed Thursday’s news conference, before being withdrawn later in the evening.
Dubois, 27, was scheduled to make a second defence of his IBF title. There is no information on the nature of his illness.
New Zealand’s Parker, 33, will instead fight Congolese Martin Bakole who has been drafted in as late-replacement.
“If he is ill, I hope he gets better soon and I’m looking forward to Saturday and having a great show,” Parker said before learning of the replacement.
Dubois has won 22 pro fights with two defeats. He won the ‘interim’ IBF title against Filip Hrgovic and was elevated to world champion when Oleksandr Usyk vacated the belt.
The Londoner made a first defence of his belt by stopping Anthony Joshua in five rounds at Wembley Stadium in September.
Parker has a record of 35 wins and three defeats. He held the WBO heavyweight title between 2015 and 2017.
The highly-rated 33-year-old Bakole, who is based in Scotland, has lost once in 22 bouts with 16 knockouts.
The contest is the chief support to the undisputed light-heavyweight fight between champion Artur Beterbiev and Dmitry Bivol.
Also on the card, Briton Hamzah Sheeraz challenges Carlos Adames for the WBC middleweight title.
Credible replacement but a huge blow for Dubois – analysis
Well, they do say expect the unexpected in heavyweight boxing.
Rumours of Dubois’ illness began to circulate at 17:10 GMT. Warren did not even reference Dubois at an undercard news conference just after 18:00.
But Dubois was a no-show an hour later at the main news conference. Warren said he was being assessed by doctors, while a deflated Parker insisted he would remain on the card.
To sum up the craziness, as Parker left the stage he told BBC Radio 5 live he had heard no update on Dubois’ withdrawal and no other opponents had been mentioned.
Minutes later, Bakole was being announced on social media as the replacement.
Bakole is a highly credible opponent and the winner will likely get their title shot at some point – it’s a decent fight. But it’s not a world-title fight. For British interest, and Dubois especially, it is thoroughly disappointing.
Illnesses happen and fighters pull out, but for it to happen so close to fight night is rare. In fact, it’s the second withdrawal in fight week of what was billed as the greatest card in the history of the sport.
Of course, with the depth of this card, there is plenty still to look forward to – most notable is Beterbiev-Bivol II, two of the world’s greatest pound-for-pound fighters facing off.
