British prospect Lawrence Okolie (14-0, 11 KOs) will have to wait for the chance to become a world boxing champion.
The 27-year-old's scheduled bout against Polish veteran Krzysztof Glowacki (31-2, 19 KOs) for the vacant WBO cruiserweight championship has been cancelled after Glowacki tested positive for COVID-19.
The contest would have been chief support to Anthony Joshua's defence of the WBA, WBO and IBF heavyweight titles against mandatory challenger Kubrat Pulev on the Dec. 12 card at the SSE Arena, Wembley.
Londoner Okolie will remain on the card against a cruiserweight opponent to be announced. Promoter Eddie Hearn is now on the lookout for someone to face the Rio 2016 Olympian at short notice.
"The search is on," noted Hearn. "Any top 10 cruiserweights slide into my DMs."
It remains unclear whether or not the WBO belt will remain the prize for the modified match-up. Hearn's specific request for a top-10-ranked fighter may factor in to that.
Should Hearn and Okolie be forced to settle for a lesser-ranked opponent on Dec. 12, there is a chance that the WBO will instead elect to wait until 2021 to schedule a new fight to crown a champion.
Okolie is one of many fighters who had to wait until the end of 2020 to get back into the ring following the pandemic caused by the coronavirus.
His last outing was a seventh-round TKO of Belgium's Yves Ngabu to win the European cruiserweight title on Oct. 26 of last year at London's O2 Arena.
Glowacki held the WBO belt in the past, defeating Marco Huck in New Jersey with a stoppage in the 11th of 12 rounds on Aug. 14, 2015. He lost it the following year to Oleksandr Usyk, who is one of only two professional boxers to best the Pole along with Mairis Briedis.