After suffering a calf injury in training, WBO bantamweight titleholder Zolani Tete has been forced to postpone his scheduled February 10 title defense against Omar Narvaez.

The card will still go on in London, with Bradley Skeete’s fight against Laszlo Toth for a minor WBC title seemingly the new main event.

Tete released this statement through promoter Frank Warren:

“I’m hugely disappointed to have to postpone my fight with Omar Narvaez. Unfortunately I picked up a calf injury that has severely hindered my training and the only option was to postpone the fight.

“I train as hard as I fight so there is always a risk of picking up injuries. World championship defenses are incredibly tough and it is unsafe fighting when you are not fit. Narvaez is a two-weight World Champion so it is vital that I am fully prepared for him.

“I am determined to put on another explosive performance for my UK fans when I face Narvaez. After I beat him the plan is to unify the bantamweight division against Ryan Burnett. It is a fight that the boxing world wants to see and I am hopeful that it will happen in 2018.”

Tete (26-3, 21 KO) has become one of the top bantamweights in the world, a South African fighting mostly in the United Kingdom since 2015, when he first came to Liverpool and beat Paul Butler for the IBF super flyweight belt. He moved to bantamweight in 2016, and won the interim WBO title against Arthur Villanueva in April 2017, followed by an 11-second knockout of Siboniso Gonya in November, in a fight for the full title.