Anthony Cacace’s IBF super-featherweight title will not be on the line when he fights Josh Warrington on the Anthony Joshua vs Daniel Dubois undercard on Saturday.
The Belfast fighter won the IBF strap with a career-best victory over Joe Cordina in May, knocking out the previously undefeated Welshman on the Tyson Fury vs Oleksandr Usyk bill.
However, the IBF [International Boxing Federation] has now ruled the belt will not be contested at Wembley Stadium this weekend.
The sanctioning body does not consider Warrington a viable challenger for their super-featherweight belt. The Leeds fighter has spent the last 12 years fighting in a different weight class at featherweight, winning two world titles at 126lbs.
But Saturday marks his first fight up at super-featherweight in over a decade with the IBF refusing to sanction him as a world title challenger.
There were concerns the fight could be scrapped completely but the IBF have given it the green light to go ahead without their belt on the line.
While Warrington will miss the chance to become a two-weight world champion, there also major repercussions for Cacace.
Should the champion lose to Warrington, the IBF title will become vacant. Should he win, Cacace must fight mandatory challenger Eduardo Nunez before March 2025 or be stripped of the belt.
Cacace’s IBO belt, a lesser recognised world title, will still be up for grabs.
‘It’s for the IBO world title. The IBF isn’t on the line,’ Cacace told BBC Sport.
‘You would need to talk to Frank [Warren, Cacace’s promoter] and everybody else behind the scenes about that. I wanted it on the line.
‘I’ve known for weeks. It’s not one bit of bother to me, but at the same time I don’t really understand what the hell is going on.’
The confusion over the IBF belt is a second blow ahead of Saturday with Liam Smith forced to pull out of his fight against Josh Kelly. Ishmael Davis will step in on late notice to fight Kelly.