There has been a change of plans in the schedule for WBC bantamweight world titlist Nordine Oubaali, who will forgo a fight next month and look to reschedule his postponed mandatory defense against former titlist Nonito Donaire, a source with knowledge of the plans told BoxingScene.com.

Oubaali’s team was in the process of finalizing a title defense against Nawaphon Kaikanha (50-1, 40 KOs), 29, of Thailand, for March 13 in Paris. Kaikanha’s only loss had come by third-round knockout to Juan Hernandez Navarrete challenging for the vacant WBC flyweight belt in March 2017 in Thailand.

However, due to Covid-19 issues the French television broadcaster involved in Oubaali-Kaikanha pulled out this week and organizer also felt it was unlikely that Kaikanha was going to be able to come to France due to coronavirus-related travel restrictions, the source said.

Ultimately, the fight was scrapped on Friday. With the fight being off, the source said there would now be an immediate effort to reschedule the fight with Donaire.

Oubaali (17-0, 12 KOs), 34, of France, was supposed to make his third 118-pound title defense against former four-division titleholder Donaire in the main event of a Showtime card on Dec. 19 at the Mohegan Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut. But Oubaali came down with Covid-19 and was forced out of the bout.

The WBC made him a “champion in recess” in mid-November and approved Donaire to fight former bantamweight titlist Emmanuel Rodriguez, who was willing to step in on short notice, for the vacant title on Dec. 19. Then Donaire also tested positive for Covid-19 a little more than week before the fight and Rodriguez instead face short-notice replacement Reymart Gaballo and lost a disputed split decision for the vacant interim WBC bantamweight belt on Dec. 19.

Because Oubaali and Donaire had both fell out of their fight due to the coronavirus, the WBC eventually reinstated Oubaali as its champion but gave him permission to have an interim bout – the one that was being planned for March 13 – before facing Donaire.

But now it is on to Donaire directly. Donaire has wanted to reschedule the fight immediately without Oubaali having an interim bout. Showtime told BoxingScene that it is hoping to reschedule the bout for this summer.

The southpaw Oubaali, who was a 2008 and 2012 French Olympian, has defended his 118-pound world title twice since winning the vacant belt by unanimous decision over Rau’shee Warren in January 2019 on the Manny Pacquiao-Adrien Broner undercard at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

In his first defense, Oubaali scored a sixth-round knockout of Arthur Villanueva in July 2019 and then unanimously outpointed Takuma Inoue – the younger brother of unified bantamweight champion Naoya Inoue – in his second defense in November 2019.

“The Filipino Flash” Donaire (40-6, 26 KOs), 38, of Las Vegas, who has won world titles at flyweight, bantamweight, junior featherweight and featherweight, is seeking a third bantamweight world title reign. He has not boxed since November 2019, when he participated in the fight of the year, a hard-fought decision loss in a bantamweight title unification fight with Naoya Inoue in the final of the World Boxing Super Series. Oubaali’s win over Takuma Inoue was on that undercard.

Dan Rafael was ESPN.com's senior boxing writer for fifteen years, and covered the sport for five years at USA Today. He was the 2013 BWAA Nat Fleischer Award winner for excellence in boxing journalism.