Steve Forbes UK debut cancelled

Phil D. Jay
WBN Editor

‘2 Pound’ set to miss January show

Former world champion Steve Forbes will no longer make his eagerly-awaited British fight debut against Ryan Barrett after the bout was removed from the show with no official reason given yet as to why.

Organiser Stephen Jones, who started a Facebook campaign to bring Forbes to the UK, made the announcement in the past hour and WBN is now in the process of investigating the situation and will have more in the coming hours.

Forbes, 34, was due to fight Barrett on January 20^th on the undercard of Derry Mathews’ IBO lightweight title challenge against undefeated Italian Emiliano Marsili at the Liverpool Olympia and had reportedly inked a three-fight deal with promoter Stephen Vaughan.

It is unclear whether the removal of the bout is just a postponement or if the American has cancelled all plans to fight in Britain and as soon as we know we will bring you more on this breaking story.

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Phil D. Jay WBN Editor Collins after the fight Williams Ray Collins Jr. or Billy Collins Jr. as he became known, was born to a boxing father in Antioch, Tennessee in 1961. His father William Sr, once fought Welterweight Champion Curtis Cokes and wanted his boy to follow in his footsteps, so decided to train Billy himself. Collins Jr. turned pro in 1981, a welterweight, just like his father before him and impressively won his first 14 professional contests, 11 by knockout with eight inside the first three rounds. It was 1983 and Billy was matched up against Puerto Rican journeyman Luis Resto on the undercard of Roberto Duran v Davey Moore at Madison Square Garden in a ten rounder. Resto wasn’t known for his punching power but Billy took a sustained beating for the full ten rounds, his face, badly damaged and his eyes were almost shut. After the fight, which Resto won on decision, Billy’s father shook Resto’s hand and noticed there wasn’t much padding in his gl...

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