SHEFFIELD-trained English super-featherweight champion Femi Fehintola has been clobbered by a late withdrawal of scheduled challenger Steve Foster, who he was supposed to be boxing next Saturday on Amir Khan's undercard.
Gleadless-based trainer Richard Poxon said "personal problems" affecting Foster had been blamed for his decision.
Fehintola, who had sold sold more than £6,000 worth of tickets, told britishboxing.net: "I'm not here to slag Steve Foster – I get al
ong with him well – but for him to pull out at just a week's notice is absolutely unbelievable. I can hardly put it into words. I'm wounded. If it had been three or four weeks, then that's understandable.
"But this is a hard pill to swallow, especially as he's not injured as such, or so Richard was told anyway.
"I've been training for weeks for this and have just been sparring with Choi (Tseveenpurev) for a week.
"I was expecting ten grand for this fight and now I'll be out of pocket.
"It costs hundreds of pounds a week for sparring partners and then you have to put them up in hotels as well.
"I'll be giving all my fans refunds if they want them. They were coming to see me, not Amir Khan or Alex Arthur."
READ MORE Football headlines. Football gossip. More boxing. Sports columnists. All sport categoriesThe full article contains 229 words and appears in Sheffield Star newspaper.
