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Breaking News: Agbeko-Mares Off, No Word On Darchinyan-Perez

Update (8:19pm EDT): BoxingScene.com's Lem Satterfield and Rick Reeno have more on the story. Agbeko collapsed after his flight with "sudden onset sciatica." The next day (yesterday) Agbeko saw Dr. Richard S. Gluckman in Los Angeles, who immediately ruled him out of the fight.

Update (7:57pm EDT): Eric Gomez of Golden Boy Promotions says that they're trying to get Tomoki Kameda (18-0, 12 KO) in for a fight with Mares, and that the assumed best available option, Golden Boy's Eric Morel, is not available. Kameda is young (19) and has been fighting mostly in Mexico, and has been training as he had a TBA date set for May 7 in Japan. We'll update further with more developments.

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Dan Rafael of ESPN.com just reported on Twitter that Saturday night's bantamweight tournament main event between Joseph Agbeko and Abner Mares is off, after Agbeko collapsed on Monday night. Press-related activities for all fighters have continued and this is the first I've heard of this, and the first I've seen reported anywhere, but expect an official announcement soon.

Rafael reports that Don King Promotions spokesman Alan Hopper says Agbeko has been diagnosed with sciatica. There is no word yet on whether or not the consolation fight between Vic Darchinyan and Yonnhy Perez will still take place.

Either way, this is a big blow to boxing fans who were looking forward to this show. The tournament was a hit in the semifinals and had built up a lot of good press going into this weekend. I can't remember reading a single negative thing about this tournament, and it deserved all of the praise, too. After two good fights in December, we had two more lined up with a fairly quick turnaround for April 23. No more, though.

Obviously there is not yet any word on rescheduling the Agbeko-Mares fight, but we'll let you know as more develops.

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