Christina Linardatou pulled from Mikaela Mayer fight after eye exam

Multiple outlets report that the British Boxing Board of Control declined to license Christina Linardatou for tomorrow’s Joyce vs Zhang co-main event slot against Mikaela Mayer. Per Dan Rafael, this decision was due to a permanent lens in Linardatou’s eye that she’s had her whole career and which the board accepted for her 2019 fight with Katie Taylor.

Mayer (17-1, 5 KO) will remain on the card against Lucy Wildheart (10-1, 4 KO), who got outclassed by Estelle Mossely in 2019 and has beaten five <=.500 opponents since.

I recognize that different doctors can have different standards even within the same organization, but if the lens was indeed the culprit, nothing about this makes sense. It’s not just that they robbed Linardatou (14-2, 6 KO) of her biggest opportunity in years over something that they knew about ahead of time and which has produced no ill effects, it’s that they did so at the eleventh hour. If your organization’s bureaucratic engine is so inefficient that it leads to nonsense like this, it needs an overhaul.

Linardatou better still get her pay.