Boxer Tysie Gallagher has labelled Ebonie Jones’s failure to make the weight for their televised title fight “disgraceful” and said the challenger will never get another shot at her belts as long as she’s the champion.
The Luton fighter was due to defend her British, Commonwealth and WBO International super bantamweight crowns at Doncaster Rovers’ Eco-Power Stadium tomorrow night, which was to be broadcast live on Dazn on the undercard of the Terri Harper and Natalie Zimmerman world title clash.
The pair had originally been scheduled to go toe-to-toe in February, but Gallagher suffered a family tragedy, with the death of her partner’s mother.
The fight – Jones’ first professional title challenge – was rescheduled with the announcement made in March and significant promotion done in the intervening two months, including a press conference yesterday, where the challenger said she needed to win to kick-start her career.
But Gallagher’s camp got a phone call late last night to say that Jones could not make weight ahead of today’s public weigh-in, and that the fight was off.
The 26-year-old said she was “devastated” after a long training camp went to waste, but also for fans. She laid all the blame on Jones, saying on her Instagram account: “We’ve been training for this fight for six months now, so [there’s been] plenty of notice and plenty of time to do everything that we needed to do, to train, to be fit, to make weight.
“And as professional athletes, we have a job and as a boxer you have a job to make weight and, unfortunately, Ebonie couldn’t stick to her end of the bargain.
“I’m absolutely gutted. Even if it wasn’t a title fight, I think it’s disgraceful, if a fighter can’t make weight.
“What we have to go through, every day putting our bodies through absolute hell, training twice a day, spending time away from family, making all the sacrifices, which I did.
“I’d done everything on my end. I made weight, I’m on weight now and I was ready to put on a great performance, and, yeah, I’m just absolutely gutted. And I’m so, so gutted for everyone that was going to come up.
“They’ve spent their hard-earned money on tickets, hotels, days off work, their travel up to Doncaster. and yeah, I’m really sorry about that, but it’s completely out of my control.
“Obviously, one door closes and another one opens and hopefully it’ll be for the bigger and better. I’m just devastated, to say the least, to be honest with you.”
Gallagher, nicknamed The First Lady, has long had her sights on world domination, though she wanted to increase her domestic dominance by beating Jones who’d defeated her twice in the amateur ranks. That was despite the advice of her promoter Izzy Asif of GBM Sports, who admitted in March that fighting Jones was a risky option.
In another Instagram post after the fight was cancelled, Gallagher, added: “The most annoying thing about this is, I didn’t need to take this fight. This is a hard fight. I could’ve had any other fight to defend my belts, any other opponent, but I wanted the hardest opponent in the British scene for me to beat, win and move on with my career.
“My promoter didn’t want me to take the fight and it was noting to do with ability, it was nothing to do with that. He was worried Ebonie wouldn’t make weight, as it’s happened before.
“But I just trusted the process and throught, no, this is a huge opportunity that she’s going to grab with both hands and do everything in her power to make the weight.
“We’re in this sport because we choose to be in this sport. No-one’s forcing us to do it. If you want to be a champion at a certain weight, you’re going to make that weight and there’s no excuse to it.
“It’s so, so frustrating that I could’ve boxed anyone else, an easier fight. I could’ve gone a different way around it, but I didn’t. I wanted the best. I wanted to test myself and be the best. I did everything my end and the fact that someone else couldn’t stick that is crazy. Crazy!
“We move on to bigger and better. She’ll never get an opportunity. As long as I hold the British title, she’ll never get that opportunity again. Crazy”
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