The highly anticipated Super Six World Boxing Final between Oakland's Andre Ward and Britain's Carl Froch will unfortunately have to be put on hold after Ward was gashed open during a training session, requiring seven stitches to close the wound.
"Bad news: I sustained a cut in sparring a few hours ago," Ward tweeted Thursday night. "Flew to (Los Angeles) to see the Doc. I got 7 stitches. I will let you know the new date soon."
Promoter Dan Goossen called it a 'fluke cut' over Ward's right eyebrow that he received from sparring partner Brandon Gonzalez. Ward headed straight to the airport to meet Goossen, flew to renown plastic surgeon Dr. Paul Wallace to patch him up, the same doctor that worked miracles with Vitali Klitschko's horrendous wound he suffered during a fight with Lennox Lewis in 2003.
Goossen noted that the fall boxing schedule is rather crowded, and it's likely that this fight won't happen now until the next calendar year. As for Froch's camp, well, let's just say they're not happy about the postponement:
"All we can go on is the news given by Andre Ward, and he was very unprofessional to do so in that manner," Eddie Hearn, Froch's promoter, told Sky Sports in England. "His promoters will be fuming at the way he delivered that message. I told Carl go to the gym this morning. He's sparring at the moment and we're ready to go in October. We're not happy. We don't believe it and won't believe it until we see the cut.
Froch's camp also found it odd that Ward would be training so late at night, but feels that Showtime, the channel the fight's to be broadcast on, will make sure to get some evidence on the cut to quell Froch and fans alike for this unfortunate postponement.