By Terence Dooley

Liverpool's Rocky Fielding will have to find a new opponent for his next Commonwealth Super middleweight title defence after local rival Tony Dodson was forced to withdraw from a March 15th meeting at their home city's ECHO Arena due to an ear infection.  The Liverpool Echo broke the news earlier today, dashing the hopes of local fight fans.

It is the second time the fight has been nixed.  They were due to meet in September only for Dodson to pull out with an injury.  The 33-year-old returned to action last Saturday with a four-round decision win over Jody Meikle in Hull's Ice Arena. Dodson, 30-8-1 (14), lost to Paul Smith for the vacant British title last June, a sixth-round TKO, but he was in confident mood going into yet another local derby.

Fielding, 17-0 (10), gathered plenty of momentum during a busy 2013.  The Eddie Hearn-promoted 26-year-old topped his year off with a brace of first round KOs (over Mohammed Akrong and Luke Blackledge respectively) and is improving with every fight.  Dodson, though, would have been his toughest test to date, hopefully the bout can be rescheduled.

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