Former WBA featherweight world champion Nicholas 'The Axeman' Walters has pushed back his return, which was scheduled for this coming Saturday night against Mexico's Arturo Santos Reyes in Lincoln, Nebraska

The fight was going to be part of the undercard to the Terence Crawford vs. Julius Indongo junior welterweight unification, which is being televised by ESPN.

Walters fell ill over the weekend and felt it was best to push back his return to a later date, hopefully in the fall.

Walters (26-1) has been out of the ring since suffering his first career defeat at the hands of WBO super featherweight champion Vasyl Lomachenko last November in Las Vegas.

In that fight he was dominated to the point where refused to fight on once the seventh round concluded.

His decision to stop fighting brought him a lot of heat from the fans.

Walters hopes to redeem himself, and aims to return to the ring on a date in November or December.

"All plans were in place for me to leave Panama on Tuesday for Nebraska with my trainer, Celso Chavez, but unfortunately, I picked up something from my son, O'Brien, who became ill last week," Walters told The Gleaner.

"He had a bad cold, a fever, and was coughing a lot, so we had to take him to the doctor. I then picked up something. I, too, had a bad cold, was doing a lot of coughing too, and had to stop training. I was really concerned, as I was in the final stages of my training. I was unable to run for a few days, my gym work was curtailed, and I was therefore not in condition for such an important fight, so I called Top Rank and told them what was happening. After discussions, it was agreed that the fight would be cancelled."