By Phil D. Jay

Former world champion Steve Forbes (35-10, 11KOs) will no longer make his eagerly-awaited British fight debut against Ryan Barrett after the bout was removed from the show with no official reason given yet as to why.

Organiser Stephen Jones, who started a Facebook campaign to bring Forbes to the UK, made the announcement in the past hour and WBN is now in the process of investigating the situation and will have more in the coming hours.

Forbes, 34, was due to fight Barrett on January 20th on the undercard of Derry Mathews’ IBO lightweight title challenge against undefeated Italian Emiliano Marsili at the Liverpool Olympia and had reportedly inked a three-fight deal with promoter Stephen Vaughan.

It is unclear whether the removal of the bout is just a postponement or if the American has cancelled all plans to fight in Britain and as soon as we know we will bring you more on this breaking story.

Phil D. Jay covers boxing for worldboxingnews.net