MANILA, Philippines -- Paul Cheng has been tapped to come in as late replacement for Chi Lewis-Parry to fight Brandon Vera in the first ever One Championship heavyweight championship fight.
Lewis-Parry has been dropped after failure to submit his medical records in the weeks leading to the fight.
"After multiple requests made by ONE directly to Chi Lewis-Parry and his manager over the last few weeks, Parry has failed to submit his medical results and his drug tests for the fight this Friday. Additionally, he decided not to board the plane departing from London to Manila. He will not be fighting this Friday," said ONE Championship’s CEO, Mr. Victor Cui in an official statement sent to Philstar.com.
"The next top HW contender, Paul Cheng will be stepping in for the World Championship fight against Brandon Vera," the statement added.
Lewis-Parry, however, made statements on his official Facebook page on Tuesday night claiming that it's ONE Championship to blame for all the mess without directly answering his failure to pass his medical results and skipping his Manila flight and threatened the largest MMA outfit in Asia with a legal action.
Dear world. As I forewarned, One Championship have ripped my shot from my grasp. They pretended Paul Cheng was...
Posted by Chi Lewis-Parry on Tuesday, December 8, 2015
Last week, Lewis-Parry already warned the fans about One Championships' plan to replace him with Cheng.
This picture was sent to me by a fan who wanted to know if my World title fight against Brandon Vera @ One Championship...
Posted by Chi Lewis-Parry on Saturday, December 5, 2015