by David P. Greisman
As previously reported, British lightweight Martin Gethin has an ear injury and has pulled out of his Nov. 23 bout with Anthony Crolla, according to tweets from promoters Frank Warren and Eddie Hearn.
“A new opponent [for Crolla] will be announced shortly,” Hearn tweeted.
The Gethin-Crolla bout was scheduled for the undercard to Carl Froch’s title defense against fellow super middleweight George Groves.
“I’m gutted but it’s just one of those things,” Gethin said. “I’ve had a bit of a set-back. I’ve had a reaction and it’s affected my training and it means I won’t be able to fight Anthony next week. It’s a massive night of boxing next weekend and I wanted to be a part of it. It’s disappointing. I’ll wait for it to heal and seek specialist advice with a view to being back out, defending my title in early 2014.”
A press release describes the injury as “a reaction to the perforated ear” Gethin suffered in his May knockout loss to Ammeth Diaz.
Gethin, 29, is 24-4-1 with 11 knockouts. Crolla, 26, is 26-4-1 with 9 KOs and is coming off a June majority decision over Gavin Rees.
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