Earlier this week David Haye pulled out of his heavyweight rematch with Tony Bellew after slipping on the stairs.
The clash between the two, which was set to take place on Sunday 17 December at London’s O2 Arena, has now been postponed to either Saturday 24 March or Saturday 5 May next year.
Following Haye’s “freak” accident we compiled a top five of the most bizarre reasons for pulling out of a boxing match.
Dean Francis v Bob Ajisafe (November 2013)
Basingstoke’s Dean Francis was all set for a British title fight with Bob Ajisafe before a blister on his finger became infected which lead to him contracting acute cellulitis and forcing the fight to be postponed.
The 39-year-old came unstuck whilst he was lifting dumbbells during training. After just a couple of days the infection had taken hold of his entire left arm leaving him unable to leave his bed for two days.
Francis was given a course of antibiotics but the problem didn’t clear up for several weeks which meant the match was rescheduled for early 2014.
Paul Economides v Prosper Ankrah (September 2015)
After 12 weeks of hard and intense training Chester boxer Paul Economides was all set for his WBF Intercontinental super-bantamweight title fight in Liverpool.
The Englishman was supposed to be coming up against Ghana’s Prosper Ankrah but was dealt some seriously unfortunate news that the African had pulled out because he’d missed his flights.
Economides was forced to pull out of the fight because he was not happy with being paired up with a lesser opponent at the 11th hour.
Nicola Adams v Alexandra Vlajk (September 2017)
Nicola Adams was looking to continue her impressive start to life in the professional ranks but saw her fight with Alexandra Vlajk in Las Vegas postponed because of her opponent’s pre-fight blood test.
The bout with the Hungarian, which was on the undercard of the Saul Alvarez v Gennady Golovkin super fight, was set to be Adams’ first in the US.
Vlajk seemed like she was going to provide tough opposition for Adams, winning 11 out of her previous 17 contests and recording two knockouts since turning professional in 2013.
Carl Frampton v Andrew Gutierrez (July 2017)
Northern Ireland’s Carl Frampton was looking to bounce back on home soil after suffering a first defeat as a professional against Leo Santa Cruz at the start of 2017 in Las Vegas - Frampton, had beaten Santa Cruz in New York last summer to claim the WBA featherweight crown.
Andres Gutierrez was supposed to be the man stepping into the right with Frampton at Belfast’s SSE Arena but had to pull out after slipping in the shower the night before the bout.
The Mexican was left with facial cuts, bruised his head and also broke two teeth during the accident.
Zane McNab v Darcy Boland (June 2017)
New Zealand’s Zane McNab was due to face fellow welterweight Darcy Boland in Melbourne but soon after training he had a seriously unfortunate accident at work, as a 30k piece of steel fell on him.
The incident which saw the 38-year-old miraculously come away with just a severely bruised kidney, unfortunately caused him to start urinating blood and ended up leading to the bout being cancelled.
Despite setting a new date Boland was then forced to pull out because of a slipped disc, prompting McNab to announce his retirement from the sport.
