Former British world champ ruled out of competing on Matchroom and Queensberry 5 vs 5 event
As the boxing world eagerly awaits the news of who will be fighting on the Matchroom and Queensberry 5 vs 5 event, one former British champion has now been ruled out of the card.
The weights for this event in June were recently revealed to include two fights at heavyweight, one at middleweight, one at flyweight, and one at light heavyweight.
The card itself will be headlined by an undisputed light heavyweight contest between current belt holders Artur Beterbiev and Dimitri Bivol and there has been much speculation about who will feature in the same division on the undercard.
Many hoped it might be Callum Smith vs Anthony Yarde in an all-British grudge match. Smith is a former super middleweight champion while Yarde has twice stepped up to the world level when fighting for belts against Sergey Kovalev and Beterbivew, and despite putting in good showings came out with two knockout-out losses.
However, Paul Smith, the elder brother of Callum, has now ruled him out in a new message posted on X.
“He knows full well it’s not happening anytime soon. Callum gets married June 1st. But it won’t stop the fraud Tunde [Yarde’s trainer] posting to stay relevant.”
Yarde could well still feature, although there has also been lots of talk about him facing Joshua Buatsi in a much anticipated light heavyweight clash, though because Buatsi fights on Sky with Boxxer that fight seems unlikely to take place on this card in Saudi Arabia in June.