Joshua Buatsi vs Dan Azeez postponed four days before all-British clash
Dan Azeez has pulled out of his fight with Joshua Buatsi on Saturday after suffering a back injury.
Azeez and Buatsi were due to clash in London to determine who would go on to challenge for world honours at light-heavyweight. But Azeez suffered a back injury during his final training session and has been deemed unfit to compete this weekend.
“I’m devastated for this to happen on fight week,” said Azeez. “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.”
The domestic dust-up will be rescheduled, and BOXXER chief Ben Shalom added, “This is a big shock but everyone at BOXXER is working very hard to ensure we provide clarity for all fighters, teams and most importantly the fans as soon as we can. I know that Dan would do anything to be in the ring on Saturday night and for this to happen at this stage is devastating.
"This is a huge fight for British Boxing, but the health and safety of our fighters must come first. My heart goes out to Dan and Joshua, who have both completed tough camps, and to the fans, with more than 10,000 having made arrangements to come on Saturday. We will provide an update on the rest of the card and communicate a revised date for Buatsi-Azeez as soon as possible.”
Buatsi and Azeez are friends and former sparring partners but vowed to put that to one side when the fight was announced. “We've been friends for years but there's too much on the line here for either of us to say no to this fight," said Buatsi.
"We can be friends again afterwards but on October 21st it's all business. I'm preparing to beat the best version of Dan Azeez and I’m doing everything I need to do to achieve that, whether that’s by decision or knockout."
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