By Francisco Salazar

Former middleweight world title holder Dmitry Pirog suffered another back injury last month and his ring return has been delayed until possibly the end of the summer, promoter Art Pelullo told Boxingscene.com earlier this week.

According to Pelullo, the undefeated Pirog injured himself last month during training, postponing a fight he was scheduled to fight in for this month.

It is not the first time Pirog has had back injuries in his career. Pirog (20-0, 15 KOs) was scheduled to fight on an HBO-televised card in late August, but had to withdraw from the fight because of a ruptured disc he suffered while training. 

The original injury to his back could be traced back to before his fight with Javier Maciel over two years ago. Pirog would win a unanimous decision victory over Maciel.

Pelullo is hopeful Pirog will get enough rest on his back to be able to make a return to the ring in late August. Pirog has not fought since winning a 12 round unanimous decision over Nobuhiro Ishida on May 1st.

Because he has not been able to defend the WBO title he won against Daniel Jacobs on July 31st, 2010, Pirog had to relinquish the title and is currently ranked number three by the same organization.