TONY Hill has suffered another setback as he battles to make his professional boxing dreams finally come true.

The 29-year-old fighter from Southampton was set to box Hosea Burton for the WBA Continental light heavyweight title on a star studded bill at the MEN Arena in Manchester in front of the Sky TV cameras on Saturday.

After a few false starts when competing for belts before, including early stoppages, opponents withdrawing and unfortunate cuts, Hill was hoping this would be his time to shine.

However, it has all fallen apart again, with Burton pulling out due to a rib injury just days before the fight.

Hill’s trainer, Wayne Batten, said: “Tony got a call from his manager, Dave Caldwell, which started with the words ‘I’ve got some bad news for you’, and he knew straight away what was coming.

“We have been told the fight will be rescheduled and that Hosea Burton is still committed to facing Tony so we have to hope that proves to be true.

“Tony’s gutted really, not just for him but because people have spent money on flights and hotels to come and support him.

“Injuries are part of boxing but that doesn’t make it any easier.” Burton was rated as the favourite to take the belt.

But Batten was confident that Hill had an edge over his undefeated opponent in terms of experience of the big time.

“People were saying that Burton was the favourite, his record is 14-0, but I don’t think he’s been at the level Tony’s been up against,” reckoned Batten.

“Neither of them has done the 12-round distance but Tony has done a 10-round championship distance and I think a longer distance fight suits Tony.

“Hosea Burton is trained by Joe Gallagher who knows his job and is a great trainer, but Tony has the experience of the bigger stage and the TV cameras so would have been a good match-up.

“The good thing about the gap before this fight was that it’s given Tony more time to grow in the light heavyweight division. He looks big and strong at the weight now.

“I was looking forward to it and was quietly confident for him.”

Hill has had to take fights at relatively short notice in the past in order to try and win a title.

However, this is a very different story.

He had already prepared fully to face Callum Johnson before his opponent was forced to pull out through injury, and now the same has happened with Burton after that came with plenty of notice.

“We built up a little bit of a platform with the training for the Callum Johnson fight and Tony had been sparring Chris Eubank Jnr and Nathan Cleverly,” explained Batten.