The Queensberry boss claimed Pulev cannot avoid the WBA-mandated fight with Itauma despite announcing a fight with former cruiserweight world champion, Murat Gassiev, to take place in December, and insisted he can’t risk putting Itauma on a show if a fight with Pulev suddenly becomes available. 

Warren said: “We’ve got to see what happens with the Pulev situation, because the WBA ordered that fight [Itauma vs Pulev]. He can’t get out of it, and we’ll see where we go with it.

“The WBA have not sanctioned that fight [Pulev vs Gassiev] to my knowledge. How can you sanction a fight when you are putting another [Itauma vs Pulev] one out?

“If we take him and say he’s fighting, then they will say ‘well, he’s not ready to fight’ and they will want the Gassiev fight, and we don’t want to go down that route.” 

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Mark Robinson/Matchroom Boxing

Since his first-round demolition job on Dillian Whyte in August, Itauma has been publicly struggling to find an opponent, initially being linked to names like Filip Hrgovic, David Adeleye and Michael Hunter. 

This was before the WBA ordered Pulev to defend his WBA (Regular) title against Itauma after his voluntary defence period elapsed. 

Pulev has not fought in almost a year - since he beat Mahmoud Charr via unanimous decision to claim the secondary WBA belt he currently holds. 

Pulev and Itauma have been given 30 days to negotiate the fight, which expires on November 14. If terms are not reached, the fight will proceed to a purse bid.

If the fight between Pulev and Gassiev has not been sanctioned as Warren claims, then Pulev will either be forced to fight Itauma or forfeit his belt – the Brit will have to patiently wait for the outcome either way and will now likely not fight until next year.

With Itauma now off the December 13 card in Manchester, Warren confirmed that the show will be headlined by a trilogy fight between Derek Chisora and Dillian Whyte – which could be the 50th and final fight of Chisora’s career. 

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