The highly anticipated super-bantamweight fight between Shabaz Masoud and Peter McGrail, set for Birmingham on June 21, will no longer go ahead, its promoter Matchroom Boxing announced today.
Unfortunately, Masoud suffered an injury in training for the fight and is unable to fight on the scheduled date. In place of Masoud, McGrail, 11-1 (6), now fights Romania’s Ionut Baluta, with his WBA international super-bantamweight title still on the line.
Baluta, 17-5-1 (3), is a more than adequate replacement on just three weeks’ notice and comes off a 10-round decision win over Brad Strand in March. Always game, Baluta has additional wins over TJ Doheny, Brad Foster and Andrew Cain, and loses only a certain level. Rarely, in fact, does anyone have an easy fight with the 31-year-old from Constanta.
