THE undercard for Anthony Joshua’s Wembley war with Daniel Dubois has suffered a huge blow with just a week to go before fight night.
AJ will bid to become a three-time heavyweight champion and end his former sparring partner’s brief reign as IBF king at the home of English football on September 21.
A stacked undercard was put together for the huge domestic dust-up, which will take place in front of 96,000 fans.
But it’s one fight lighter after the withdrawal of a former world champion due to illness.
Liam Smith’s domestic dust-up with Josh Kelly has been scrapped due to the former WBO light-middleweight champion being struck down with a virus.
It’s unknown if a replacement opponent will be found for Sunderland slugger Kelly.
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Smith, 36, hasn’t set foot inside the ring since losing his rematch with Chris Eubank Jr last September.
The Liverpudlian entered the Manchester melee having sensationally stopped the former IBO super-middleweight champion in the fourth round of their first encounter in January 2023.
But lightning didn’t strike twice as Smith was stopped in the tenth round of their rematch.
Reflecting on the defeat, he said: “I couldn’t get off. The weight cut just took its toll on me.
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“From the minute of the back injury to the minute of the rescheduled date.
“It was like a race against time, from our point of view, the deadline where Chris might have walked away from the rematch.
“So it was always a race against time, anyway, and I just feel it obviously played its part.
“You didn’t have to be a genius to see how flat [I was] 40 seconds into the fight, you know what I mean? I just couldn’t get going, I feel. I feel the weight killed me.
“I think everyone knows and Chris knows how I was with the weight, to say at the weigh-in.
“After the injury, I came down three stone (42 pounds) and so [that is] a lot of weight to shift in a short space of time.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
