By Gregory Stangrit

WBC cruiseweight champion, 36-year-old Russian Grigory Drozd, is seriously injured and unable to make a mandatory defense of his title against Ilunga Makabu. The fight was scheduled for April 8 in Moscow.

The entire card is put off. The co-feature would have had Cesar Rene Cuenca in a tasty rematch against Eduard Troyanovsky.

"I will not let him go forward with the fight against Makabu, because his left hand [is injured]," says promoter Andrei Ryabinsky of World of Boxing.

"The fight with Makabu will be postponed, and I think it won't happen for quite a long time because the injury to Grigory is serious. Everything will depend on how serious the damage."

Russia’s Drozd, 40-1, is without question the world’s premier cruiserweight right now. Unbeaten in 15 fights spanning 10 years, the charismatic 36-year-old captured his belt in September 2014 with a wide decision win over then 49-2 Krysztof Wlodarczyk. The upcoming fight was going to be the second defense of his world title.

Argentina’s Cuenca, then 48-0, lost his “0” and his IBO and IBF World Super-Lightweight Titles when he dropped a surprise sixth round TKO against 22-0 Troyanovsky last November. Cuence had a rematch clause, which he exercised to get the unbeaten Russian back in the ring. No word on when or where this fight will land.

Drozd spoke about the injury - "Today I did not have very good news: my fight on April 8 was canceled due to left hand injury. I received the injury two days ago in training. Unfortunately, due to the nature of the injury (tendon rupture), continued preparation can not be considered."

Gregory Strangrit covers boxing for Allboxing.ru.