Dean Harrison's hope on Gavin bout

Dean Harrison is hoping to resurrect his West Midlands derby with Frankie Gavin in February after admitting he was "gutted" not to be fighting.

Wolverhampton's Harrison was scheduled to meet Birmingham's Gavin over 12 rounds for the vacant WBO Intercontinental light welterweight title at Liverpool's Echo Arena tonight.

But, on Wednesday, Gavin pulled out of the fight with flu and Harrison was scrubbed from the line-up of promoter Frank Warren's 30th anniversary show, with the fight postponed until a later date.

It left 'Deano' in serious limbo and trying to reach a financial agreement with promoter Warren for a share of the purse he was due to receive tonight, having taken five weeks off work to train.

The money will be much-needed but not just with Christmas coming up, as Harrison is now planning to join trainer Lee Beard on a four-week training camp in the United States next week.

Since the Gavin fight was called off he has had a complete break to forget about boxing, although a few days of reflection has seen the 27-year-old start to look on the bright side.

He said: "I am as well as can be expected, but you cannot begin to imagine how disappointed I was when I heard the news.

"I was gutted, this is the first time I have been able to prepare for a big fight properly and I really couldn't have asked for a better training camp.

"Tonight, I was going to show how good I really am.

"But there's no point in me sitting at home and moping, you have got to have a thick skin in boxing so I am not going to get too down about it.

"There's no Christmas or New Year for me now if I am fighting in February, but I am a professional boxer and these things happen."

Despite the setback, Harrison refuses to blame his opponent, a good friend and former sparring partner, for the situation he finds himself in.

Gavin has never pulled out of a professional fight before, but famously was unable to compete at the Olympics in 2008 after failing to make the weight.

And the only Englishman to win a world amateur title gave himself the best part of a week to get over his illness before admitting defeat.

With that in mind, there are no hard feelings from Harrison.

He said: "If Frankie has got the flu, he's got the flu and he's done what he believes he has to.

"Obviously I am his hardest opponent yet, so he wants to be 100 per cent fit when he gets in the ring with me.

"If it was me, I wouldn't pull out if I had lost an arm, but that is the sort of fighter that I am."