Chase DeMoor Withdraws From Plinio Cruz Fight With Eye Injury
Chase DeMoor will not defend his Misfits Boxing heavyweight title against Plinio Cruz this weekend. He said doctors never cleared him in time, and the eye injury that delayed the bout is still not finished with him.
The fight was booked for Saturday at Copper Box Arena in London, with the card streaming on DAZN. DeMoor posted a video explaining the withdrawal after a Friday call ended the camp. Misfits Boxing has already named his coach, Gary Olive, as the replacement in a bout it is billing as a battle of the coaches.
“These videos are never easy to make, but I just want to kind of say to the point, unfortunately, I did not get cleared in time to go and fight next weekend either,” DeMoor said. “I tried to make it happen, but obviously this eye injury is taking a lot longer to recover from than I initially anticipated.”
The London date was already a second attempt. Cruz was first matched with DeMoor for September 26, then the bout slid to October 10. Cruz wrote last month that he had been told the eye problem came out of DeMoor’s WBC title fight.
DeMoor answered at the time that the issue showed up in sparring, that he had not yet been cleared, and that an eight-round sanction was still unresolved.
He did not walk that history back in the new video. He said the eye was only one problem in a camp that never got clean.
“Besides that, there was a lot of concerns going into the camp,” DeMoor said. “I was away for a bit from a TV show and did not get to properly train when I needed to train, and I had a severe weight cut just a month ago when I fought for the WBC silver.”
That silver belt came on August 29 in Everett, Massachusetts, when he stopped Kevin Nagle for the vacant WBC USA Silver heavyweight title and weighed in at 231 pounds. He said the cut from that night is still sitting on him.
“I was 230 plus pounds, and then now I’m walking around 213 pounds,” DeMoor said. “Besides the eye injury, there was a weight issue, not being able to train.”
He aimed the apology at fans who had planned to be in the building. The bout had been discussed since summer, and he said he knew people had bought in.
“I just wanna give a huge apology from the bottom of my heart to all the supporters, all the fans,” DeMoor said. “I know you guys are really excited for that one.”
Cruz is Alex Pereira‘s coach, a former MMA heavyweight who retired in 2019 with an 8-9 record and recently signed a multi-fight deal with Misfits. DeMoor credited the work on the other side of the matchup and said the cancellation was not a lack of interest.
“He put in numerous hours of work, all credit to him, putting in a camp and getting ready for that fight,” DeMoor said. “We’ve been talking about since summer, and I was just as much excited to go fight him, but sadly was not able to do that.”
He framed the pullout as a medical decision rather than his own. Head coach Gary Olive, the promoter, his doctors, and his therapist all raised concerns, he said.
“These things happen in boxing, it’s combat sports,” DeMoor said. “If I had one eye, leg, one shoulder, whatever it is, I’d be on the front lines, ready to go, ready to fight, any place, anybody, anywhere.”
“This call comes from not me, but obviously concerns from the head coach, Gary Olive, concerns from the promoter, concerns from my doctors, my therapist,” he said. “Everybody who thinks that I’m just not in the right state to be out there this soon, ready to fight.”
The timeline he gave runs through the end of last week. Appointments continued until the clearance failed.
“I tried everything I could to make it happen,” DeMoor said. “I was in doctor’s appointments all the way up until Friday, when I received the call that we were not going to be cleared in time to fight.”
He described the eye in plain terms. Dilation is still there, and the vision has not fully returned.
“My eye is still very much dilated, and the vision is still not fully there,” DeMoor said. “I really, really wish that I could be in the UK this weekend, fighting, defending the title yet again, but sadly, that’s just not the case.”
The rest of the London show is still on. Joey Essex meets Daniel O’Reilly, known as Dapper Laughs, in the main event, and Carla Jade defends the MF lightweight title against Erika Night. DeMoor told fans to stay with the card.
“I wish nothing but the best for all the fighters on the card,” he said. “It’s going to be a great card. A lot of big names on there, and for me, back to the drawing board.”
Olive stepping in keeps Cruz on the show, but it takes the Misfits heavyweight belt off Saturday’s schedule. DeMoor said the next job is recovery, not a new date.
“Focus on recovery, focus on rest, focus on hopefully not going blind in my eye, and I’ll see you guys soon,” DeMoor said.
