OFF – Steven Ward forced to pull out of Saturday’s British title eliminator

Steven Ward [13(4)-1(1)] has been forced to pull out of his British title eliminator this weekend.

‘The Quietman’ was set to fight Mikael Lawal [13(7)-0] for the right to challenge for the title currently held by recent Tommy McCarthy defeater Chris Billiam Smith on the undercard of Chris Eubank Jr’s return to Britain.

Purse bids for his mandated fight were won by Ben Shalom of Ultimate Boxxer fame and their link-up with Sky meant Ward had a fight with real significance on a massive platform.

However, it emerged today that the popular Jamie Moore fighter has been forced to withdraw from the fight.

Ward [13(4)-1(1)] was initially mandated to fight Jack Massey in an eliminator and was set to face the former domestic title challenger on a Frank Warren show.

However, ‘One Smack’ withdrew leading to the Lawal bout, which is no more for this weekend at least.

Ward was last seen in the ring in an exhibition bout with former Strong Man and Game of Thrones star Hafthor ‘Thor’ Bjornsson and was set to fight Kazakh ‘phenom’ Kamshybek Kunkabayev in February in Dubai but that fight fell through.

The Newtownabbey resident has been handed domestic duty next and has been given a clear pathway to British title success.