Home Boxing News Australian boxers see local and international fights postponed in the wake of...

Australian boxers see local and international fights postponed in the wake of the coronavirus

Former WBO welterweight champion Jeff 'The Hornet' Horn. Photo credit: Sky Sports

The highly anticipated junior middleweight clash between former WBO welterweight champion Jeff Horn 20-2-1 (13) and Tim Tszyu 15-0 (11) has been postponed just a day after the event was confirmed to go ahead.

The fight was scheduled to take place at Townville’s new 25,000 seat Queensland Country Bank Stadium in North Queensland on April 22.

Travel restrictions, flight cancellations and self-isolation have all fed into the decision, with Tszyu’s manager Matt Rose admitting that the constantly evolving coronavirus crisis made it a difficult call to make.

“It’s a landscape that changes probably hourly and from our perspective looking at how things were going in the current environment of the unknown, we just don’t know where things are going,” Rose said to Nine Publishing.

“Although we’re still six weeks away from that fight, we just felt it still fell within the grounds of what’s going on at the moment.”

Horn said: “I was on track and ready, so it’s very frustrating to be postponed at this stage. This is a postponement, I need to keep training for the next fight and that’s Tim Tszyu.

“The last I saw from Tim was in Townsville and they all seemed pretty confident it was going ahead.”

Meanwhile WBA ‘regular’ super flyweight champion Andrew ‘The Monster’ Moloney 21-0 (14) has had the first defence of his title postponed.

The 29-year-old Australian was expected to defend the belt he won against Elton Dharry 24-6-1 (14) in November against an opponent to be named at the Osage Casino in Tulsa, Oklahoma on April 17.

“Unfortunately my world title defence on April 17 will now be postponed due to the coronavirus,” said Moloney on social media.

“I was really looking forward to flying out this Sunday and headlining my first show in America.

“I will continue working hard while we wait for a new fight date from Top Rank.”

Bantamweight contender Jason Moloney 20-1 (17) was scheduled to face Joshua Greer 20-1-1 (12) on the undercard of the 118-pound unification fight between Japanese powerhouse Naoya Inoue 19-0 (16) and John Riel Casimero 29-4 (20) at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada on April 25.

“The health and safety of our fighters, staff and ESPN’s incredible production team is the most important thing as we plan our next steps,” Top Rank chairman Bob Arum said to ESPN.

“We look forward to the day when we can bring our loyal fans world-class boxing once again, but exercising caution is the most prudent thing to do at this moment.”

Former WBA ‘regular’ heavyweight champion Lucas ‘Big Daddy’ Browne 29-2 (25) has also had his fight against undefeated Russian Apti Davtaev 20-0-1 (19) at the Park Theater in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 28 scrapped for the time being.

Super middleweight Zac Dunn 29-1 (24) was set to move up to 175-pounds to challenge WBA interim light champion Dominic Boesel 30-1 (12) at the GETEC Arena in Magdeburg, Germany on March 28 but that card too has been postponed according to ESPN.