Louis Greene’s British title challenge has been put on hold after he was wiped out by a virus.

The Medway Mauler is the mandatory challenger for the British belt and was due to face Sam Gilley in a rematch for the title at York Hall tomorrow (Friday) night.

Greene, from Strood, lost out to Gilley in an enthralling battle for the Commonwealth crown a year ago but bounced back with a first-round TKO of Jack McGann on a huge show at the Kingdom Arena, Riyadh back in March.

He was expecting to be out again in the summer but the schedule kept moving before a mid-October date was finally agreed after Gilley linked up with Frank Warren’s Queensberry Promotions.

It seemed that the long wait for Greene was over but just days before the fight - last Tuesday - he ended his last sparring session feeling unwell and attended A&E for tests, results that showed he’d picked up a virus that’s left him in no position to fight.

John Greene, his father and coach, said: “That sparring session had been harder than it should have been and he came out of the ring and said, ‘Dad, I just don’t feel right’. He went home and still didn’t feel good so later in the evening went up to A&E where they did lots of tests and he had some sort of infection in the body which just wiped him out.

“We were coming to the end of the camp but he’s been in the gym since March. We had a date of June originally scheduled and then that date got moved to July, then it was the end of July, the date kept moving but it wasn’t far enough away to rest up, so Lou has been pretty much full steam ahead since then.

“He trains full on, always put the effort in, but in effect he’d been parked up for six months. Finally, Gilley signed with Frank Warren and then within two weeks we had a date that everyone was happy with and we thought, ‘finally, it’s going to take place’.

“We get closer and closer, then bang it all goes up in the air, you think that’s 120 rounds of sparring gone up the creek.

“Lou is absolutely gutted - you can imagine - we’d looked at that last fight (against Gilley) I don’t know how many times, we picked up what Lou did wrong and what would work better and we were confident he would get the result this time.”

Gilley is still fighting on Friday, with McGann promoted up the fight card to now challenge for the Commonwealth belt. The British title remains vacant, awaiting Greene’s return to the ring.

“There’s no saying that McGann can’t win this one,” said Greene snr.

“Just because of what happened with Lou doesn’t mean he is not capable of beating Sam - he is a competent boxer and styles make fights, don’t they?

“Sam obviously didn’t want to waste his camp and Jack’s got an upgrade. I think the winner gets Lou (for the British title), whenever they’re ready.”

Greene, with a professional record of 17 wins and four losses, has had a few setbacks before - including the Gilley defeat - but has always bounced back. There’s no reason he can’t do so again.

His dad added: “This has obviously upset him, it should be him fighting and he’s down in the dumps, but he comes back stronger every time.”