As BoxingScene.com reported earlier, Joseph Parker's mandatory defense of the WBO heavyweight title against Hughie Fury is off.
Confirmation of the cancellation was made after the president of the World Boxing Organisation, Paco Valcarcel, said no title fight would take place in New Zealand on May 6th at the Spark Arena in Auckland, New Zealand.
Doubts were already raised over the fight after the Parker camp arrived into the country on Saturday with the Fury camp nowhere to be seen. This is despite the bout taking place in under two weeks.
Fury's trainer and father Peter was denied a visa to travel to New Zealand back in February before receiving special dispensation last month to come down under for the fight.
Parker's promoter, Duco Events, have now confirmed that Fury is claiming to have an injury, which forced him to withdraw from the contest. Parker is now able to make a voluntary defense.
Duco will now attempt to secure a late replacement to face Parker on the card. If they are unable to find a suitable opponent, the entire event could very well get canceled with Parker's return being pushed back to a later date.
"I spoke to the WBO president a minute ago he said the Furys are claiming to have an injury and therefore we can fight whoever we want when we want as a voluntary defence out of the top 50," Duco co-owner David Higgins said to Fairfax Media.
Higgins is not sure of the injury and has no plan to speak with anyone from Fury's camp.
"I know exactly what it is; their moral compass has broken in half - a nasty fracture of the moral compass. It's not just Hughie, the whole camp has. That's boxing. Sometimes this sort of thing goes on. They didn't appear to want to come to New Zealand," Higgins said.