The much-awaited British crucial light-heavyweight boxing clash between Dan Azeez and Josh Buatsi has been postponed after Dan suffered a back injury in training.

The two friends-turned-rivals were meant to fight on Saturday, October 21 at the O2 Arena.

Doctors have now ruled Azeez is unable to fight due to a trapped nerve in his back.

The fight was meant to be the final eliminator to the WBA light heavyweight title challenge against Dmitry Bivol.

This is the first withdrawal of Dan Azeez’s career so he is devastated by the late nature of the withdrawal.

In a statement, Dan revealed: “I’m devastated for this to happen on fight week,”

“It still hasn’t sunk in. I’ve never had to withdraw from a fight in my career before. I want to apologise to all the fans, especially those travelling to the fight. I am also extremely sorry to my opponent Joshua Buatsi, to my promoter and to everyone involved who has worked so hard on this date. I hope this fight can be rescheduled as soon as possible.”

Dan Azeez

BOXXER founder and CEO Ben Shalom said the fight night is still expected to go ahead, with a card featuring Isaac Chamberlain against Mikael Lawal.

Shalom said:

“A great night of boxing will go ahead on Saturday night. The team are working overtime right now to make sure everything goes ahead.”