Light heavyweight Dan Azeez 20-0 (13) has spoken out about the back injury that forced him to withdraw from his bout against Joshua Buatsi 17-0 (13) to take place at the O2 Arena in London, England on Saturday night.
The 34-year-old Londoner was the bout to be scheduled before the end of the year.
“I’m obviously not in the best of spirits but it is what it is. The fight is off and we’re looking to get a new scheduled date in the diary,” Azeez said to Sky Sports.
“I was having my last real hard session and after the session I could feel a pain in my lower back, and it got worse and worse from there.
“I thought I would be able to take some painkillers but the restriction, I couldn’t move the way I needed to move, both standing up and sitting down. I was not clear to box after that.
“I got some rehab to do and it looks positive. I thought it would be much longer than expected so I’m quite pleased about that.
“Everyone knows you always get niggles and I’ve been in fights where you get injuries. I thought it was just another niggle and I had a few days until the fight, but it just got worse and worse to the point where I couldn’t move and that’s when it was concerning for me.
“The fight was so close and that’s when the injury occurred, but I still had hope.”
Azeez, who hopes the cancellation doesn’t mean the fight is scrapped for good, says speculation he faked the injury is particularly hurtful.
“I know emotions are high I can only imagine how [Buatsi] feels. Hopefully, he understands and hopefully we can get this on,” Azeez continued.
“I’d really like it to happen before the end of the year. That’s what it’s looking like. Once we get the scans and results back, hopefully we can actually put a date to it.
“That’s one of the things that’s been most upsetting. I’m hearing the narrative of three weeks out. The show was going to be off but that’s really hurtful. For someone of my integrity, the type of fighter I am, I would never, ever stage an injury.
“People have worked hard to buy a ticket to come and people have travelled far. I just wouldn’t do that. It’s nothing to do with [promoter] Boxxer or Buatsi, got the injury just the other day.
“It was hurtful, especially coming from people in the industry. You’ll have your people on social media and your keyboard warriors, but when you have people in the industry who know the game and the industry talking about conspiracies, that’s really, really poor. I was enraged.
“You have other promoters who maybe try to make the show not as successful as it was going to be. It’s competition, dirty tricks. People who know me know I wouldn’t do that. I’m a man of integrity and the sport means a lot to me.”
