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Earl out of Limond title defence
Like Limond, Earl has lost to Amir Khan in the past year
Graham Earl has pulled out of his lightweight title fight against Willie Limond with an injured hand.
Limond was to make the first defence of his fringe IBO Inter-continental title in Glasgow on Saturday but Earl has damaged a metacarpal in his left hand.
Earl, 29, said he had to withdraw: "It is a 50-50 fight and I can't afford to go into it at less than 100%."
Limond added: "I'm gutted. My eight weeks of hard training has been for nothing, but these things happen."
Glasgow fighter Limond, who won the belt against Martin Watson, added: "I hope Graham Earl can recover quickly so we can get the fight back on.
"A lot of people were looking forward to the fight, but the upside is that I still have my IBO Inter-continental lightweight title and I can still fight a final eliminator later on in the year."
Saturday's fight was intended to be a final eliminator for the lightly-regarded IBO world title. Braveheart Promotions say they will reschedule the bout for August or September.
Limond must wait to make the first defence of his title
The challenger from Luton said: "All it would take is my hand to go and my chances of winning would be severely reduced.
"It is really frustrating as I sustained the injury on my last day of hard training before I started to wind my preparations down.
"I thought I might have broken my left hand during sparring and went for an X-ray, but it turned out to be bruising and there is also a lot of swelling."
Like Limond, Earl has lost to Amir Khan in the past year
Graham Earl has pulled out of his lightweight title fight against Willie Limond with an injured hand.
Limond was to make the first defence of his fringe IBO Inter-continental title in Glasgow on Saturday but Earl has damaged a metacarpal in his left hand.
Earl, 29, said he had to withdraw: "It is a 50-50 fight and I can't afford to go into it at less than 100%."
Limond added: "I'm gutted. My eight weeks of hard training has been for nothing, but these things happen."
Glasgow fighter Limond, who won the belt against Martin Watson, added: "I hope Graham Earl can recover quickly so we can get the fight back on.
"A lot of people were looking forward to the fight, but the upside is that I still have my IBO Inter-continental lightweight title and I can still fight a final eliminator later on in the year."
Saturday's fight was intended to be a final eliminator for the lightly-regarded IBO world title. Braveheart Promotions say they will reschedule the bout for August or September.
Limond must wait to make the first defence of his title
The challenger from Luton said: "All it would take is my hand to go and my chances of winning would be severely reduced.
"It is really frustrating as I sustained the injury on my last day of hard training before I started to wind my preparations down.
"I thought I might have broken my left hand during sparring and went for an X-ray, but it turned out to be bruising and there is also a lot of swelling."
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