Joseph Parker's fight against Hughie Fury is off after the president of the World Boxing Organisation said no title fight would take place.
Doubts were already raised over the fight after the Parker camp arrived into the country on Saturday with the Fury camp nowhere to be seen. This is despite the bout taking place in under two weeks.
"He's not even here yet, hopefully they do come," Parker said.
"The fight's scheduled to happen on May 6 and I hope they do come down so they can see what it's all about, see what New Zealand is all about and also see what my fists can do in the ring."
On Sunday morning, WBO president Francisco Varcarcel tweeted "As of today, it seems there will be no WBO Heavyweight World Title fight in New Zealand @danrafaelespn @boxingscene".
Varcarcel then followed that up with a second tweet saying "It seems the problem lies within Team Fury @danrafaelespn @boxingscene @fightnews".
Fury's trainer and father Peter was denied a visa to travel to New Zealand back in February before receiving special dispensation last month to come down under for the fight.
Parker's promoters, Duco Events, have confirmed the fight has been called off due to an injuey to the challenger.
Duco co-owner David Higgins told Andrew Gourdie and Jim Kayes on RadioLIVE that Parker is furious the fight is a no-go.
"I can tell you Joseph Parker's frustrated and angry as we all are, and they've pissed us around a lot," said Higgins.
However Higgins did note that a fight on May 6 is still a possability as they work through potential challengers willing to step up on 13 days notice.
"Option one is to find a credible solid opponent in the top 15 who'll take fight at short notice, that sounds far-fetched but it's not that, because it's a world title shot and some of those guys in the top 15 dream of getting a shot at the title.
"If the budget looks solid and Joseph wants to fight then we'd be announcing in the next couple of days the revised opponent"
If Duco can't get a deal done then Higgins doubts the Kiwi will fight again in New Zealand for quite some time.
"If there isn't a suitable opponent, then we will cancel the event and refund everyone, looking for a new option further down the track and probably not in NZ.
"But even if we do manage to get a replacement, top 15, it's probably going to be the last time Joseph fights in New Zealand."
Higgins said he and his management team are done dealing with Frank Warren and the team of Hughie Fury - even going as far as to question the suggestion that the Brit is injured.
"We absolutely wash our hands of them.
"I think the injury claim is bullshit, Bob [Arum] agreed, but you never know, I don't want to be defamatory."
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