Moses Itauma’s search for his next opponent will go on, with potential foe Kubrat Pulev having opted to fight Murat Gassiev.

This week, Itauma was ordered to challenge Pulev for the Bulgarian’s WBA (Regular) title, with the young Briton sitting at No 1 in the organisation’s rankings.

However, it has now been announced that Pulev, 44, will face Gassiev in Dubai on 12 December – one day before Itauma, 20, is planning to compete in Manchester.

“The Pulev vs Gassiev fight is signed, sealed, and confirmed, so Itauma will have to wait his turn,” said Ivaylo Gotzev, CEO of Epic Sports & Entertainment, which is organising the Dubai card.

“We have an official WBA resolution authorising Kubrat Pulev’s first title defense to be a voluntary, and in line with that, we’ve locked in a terrific opponent in Murat Gassiev.

Itauma is still expected to compete on the 13 December card at Manchester’s Co-op Live arena, the same event where Derek Chisora fights for the 50th and final time as a professional.

Chisora, 41, is also awaiting an opponent for that night. However, Zhilei Zhang’s advisor has said they were contacted by Queensberry regarding a fight with Chisora, claiming they quickly agreed to it.

“We’ve been very quiet about it, because our team and Zhang himself, we’re just not ones to rush to social media,” Terry Lane told Boxing Scene. “But we were presented with the fight [three weeks ago], and we accepted in a couple of days. So, it’s been well over three weeks since the fight has been accepted on our end, in principle.”

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