Lawrence Okolie is “gutted” at having to withdraw from his fight with Richard Riakporhe through injury.

The rival heavyweights were to fight on April 5 at the Co-op Live in Manchester, England, as the chief support to what was scheduled to be Joe Joyce-Dillian Whyte and represented the first date of Queensberry Promotions’ broadcast deal with DAZN. 

A finger injury has already forced Whyte’s withdrawal from that contest – speculation persists that he is to be replaced by Filip Hrgovic of Croatia, and also that the promising Moses Itauma will be installed on the undercard – and an unspecified injury suffered by Okolie means that his fight with Riakporhe is also off.

“I’m absolutely gutted, he was in great shape – flying in training,” Okolie’s trainer Joe Gallagher told BoxingScene from their training camp in Dubai. “I’d come out to train him for the next three or four weeks. 

“But the kid’s gutted. He was really looking forward to it. Hopefully he just needs a little bit of recovery, rest, and we’ll be ready to go in the summer.”

Okolie, 32, is the former WBO cruiserweight champion. He was to be Riakporhe’s first opponent at heavyweight after the 35 year old’s decision to move up off the back of his defeat by Chris Billam-Smith for the same title.