‘Disrespected’ Kristen Fraser pulls out of Cathy McAleer Commonwealth title defense

Cathy McAleer won’t get the chance to make Irish boxing history on September 28 after Kristen Fraser pulled out of their proposed Commonwealth title fight.

The champion was meant to put her bantamweight version of the rainbow belt on the line against McAleer on the top of a MHD Promotions Europa Hotel bill.

It was a massive chance for the former Kickboxing world champion to make serious boxing inroads as well as a chance to become the first female Irish fighter to hold the strap.

The Aberdeen fighter was upset the fight was announced in June as the announcement coincided with her wife being seriously ill in hospital at the time- and she is citing the poor timing of the announcement as the reason she has elected against coming to Belfast.

The fighter claims she asked MHD to hold off on the announcement and also felt she should be the one to reveal the news considering she is the champion.

“My wife was rushed into hospital and they (promoters) were saying they wanted to release confirmation of the fight while I was there with her,” she told the Evening Express.

“I told them no, that my wife is my priority and focus right now and I don’t want to hear about the fight. However, they jumped the gun in announcing the fight.

“I tried to swallow that, but it got to the point where I couldn’t any more as it was so disrespectful to my family and to my wife.

“They were fully aware of the situation at the time with my wife and why I wasn’t available.

“I said to them we can delay it and then they would get my full attention and I could go over to Belfast to do it properly.

“It was a blue light ambulance to get her to the hospital.

“I told the promoters I needed my breathing space, that I couldn’t do that as well as everything else that was going on.

“I should have been respected as a champion and should have been respected as a person. My wife got out of hospital because we had a baby at home who was only a few weeks old.

“However, we still didn’t know what was wrong with her and were still very concerned.”

Thankfully Fraser’s wife Kirsty has fully recovered, but the alleged incident left a sour taste.

Fraser was already scheduled for a tune up clash pre McAleer on August 30 and will fight on that date. The Scot has to defend her title before November 30, but at present it doesn’t seem as if that will be against McAleer.

Irish-boxing.com understood the fight was agreed as was the fact it would be announced before Fraser’s wife was taken to hospital.