Erik Bazinyan was forced to withdraw from his super middleweight bout against Steven Butler due to injury. The contest was scheduled to headline the fight card at Theatre St-Denis in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, on March 14. The entire event has been canceled.
Armenia’s Bazinyan got injured in training. The event organizer company, Eye of the Tiger (EOTTM), revealed the nature of the injury – a sprain of the deltoid ligament in his right ankle – in an announcement on Wednesday. The Quebec-based 29-year-old is now sidelined “for the next few weeks.”
In his previous outing last September, Erik Bazinyan (32-1-1, 23 KOs) suffered his first career defeat by knockout in the 10th round against Jaime Munguia. Montreal’s former title challenger Steven Butler (35-5-1, 29 KOs) won his previous bout last November via first-round TKO against Fernando Ezequiel Farias.
The matchup, as well as the rest of the lineup, is said to be rescheduled to a new date.
“Despite a strong undercard, including Mary Spencer’s world title defense, we found ourselves in a situation similar to what we experienced with Beterbiev-Smith,” said EOTTM President Camille Estephan.
“It’s a heartbreaking decision, but it would have been disrespectful and inconsiderate to our fans to move forward with the event despite the withdrawal of the main event, Bazinyan vs Butler, when people had purchased their tickets specifically to see that fight.”
Among the previously announced Bazinyan vs Butler undercard bouts, Mary Spencer (9-2, 6 KOs) of Wiarton, Ontario was set to make the first defense of her WBA super welterweight title against Venezuela’s former world champion Ogleidis Suarez (31-5-1, 15 KOs).