Carl Frampton has been forced to postpone his upcoming fight with Jamel Herring.
The Belfast fighter was due to challenge Herring for the WBO Super Featherweight title in London on February 27.
However, a hand injury has put Frampton's plan to become a three-weight world champion on ice.
'The Jackal' says the injury is not a serious one, and it's hoped the fight can be re-fixed for March.
"It is just a bit of a twinge to my hand," Frampton said in a statement, Nothing too serious but I have seen a specialist and his advice was to rest it.
"So I asked about the possibility of a postponement to the fight and it was agreed to.
“It gives me a better chance because I will be going into the fight with two good hands after taking the advice from the specialist. It is nothing major though and there is no fracture.
“I did go into a fight with a hand injury against Tyler McCreary and ended up requiring surgery afterwards on both hands.
"No disrespect to Tyler, but Jamel Herring is a world champion and at a higher level so I need to be at my best. That is what I intend to be.
Frampton added, “I haven’t been able to spar or hit the heavy bags for a while. From next week I have been given the go-ahead to start doing that again.
"I have still been training, doing loads of running, shadow boxing and hitting the paddles as well, which kind of replicates the pads, but I have not hit anything solid for the last two weeks.
“It wouldn’t have sat right with me to pull out if people had spent their hard earned money on tickets and travel, but this is completely different and I just want to give myself the best opportunity to win and that is it.
“I would like to thank Frank and Bob for making this possible, plus Jamel as well for his understanding. It is something that just happens in boxing and I am thankful we have been able to postpone it.”
Frampton on McGuigans: I wouldn’t p**s on them if they were on fire
