By Elliot Foster
Hosea Burton is still expected to defend his British light-heavyweight title in his next fight.
The Newcastle-born Manchester man, who trains under Joe Gallagher in Bolton, had been scheduled to make the first defence of his crown against Frank Buglioni, a former world title challenger down at super-middleweight, in the autumn.
Burton’s clash with 27-year-old Buglioni (18-2-1, 14 KOs) was scheduled for September 24 at Manchester Arena, exclusively live on Sky Sports, as part of the supporting cast to Anthony Crolla’s world lightweight title showdown against Jorge Linares.
But the fight was canned on Wednesday after the Enfield ‘Wise Guy’ revealed that he had suffered a cut in sparring for the fight and had been forced to withdraw.
At the stage of that announcement, it was unclear as to whether Burton would still appear on the card, but Boxing Scene understands that ‘The Hammer’, 27 and 17-0 (8 KOs), will still feature and will aim to put the first notch on the defences ladder as he looks to hold on to the domestic bauble until he has it for keeps.
Burton’s promoter, Eddie Hearn, took to Twitter to clear up the situation, stating that efforts are being made to “[arrange a] new fight” for his man, with the possibility of adding another to the bill which already contains 10 fights.
This is the second successive scheduled British title defence that has been scrapped for Burton, who was set to defend his belt against Tony Dodson in May before the Liverpudlian snapped his achilles tendon and was forced to have surgery to repair the problem.
Further details are expected to be revealed in due course.