Reports of Anthony Joshua and Deontay Wilder fighting on the same card - but not against each other - have been described as "frustrating" by Carl Froch.
It has been claimed that Joshua will face Otto Wallin on December 23 in Saudi Arabia with Wilder also taking on Joshua Parker that night.
The plan would shelve hopes of Wilder and Joshua going toe-to-toe in the ring until the spring of 2024 at the earliest, along with a potential clash with Francis Ngannou.
Froch told talkSPORT: "It's a bit disappointing for AJ to be fighting Wallin instead of Deontay Wilder, because the AJ vs Wilder fight for me is a very big fight, it's a fight I could look forward to, it's a fight I could get excited about.
"It's one of them where you think, 'What happens?'. Does AJ get absolutely obliterated and knocked out in a couple of rounds because he's a bit mentally still tentative in the way in which he does his work? Or does AJ actually turn up and put on a boxing masterclass and maybe even finish off Wilder?
"There's so many different outcomes, it's a juicy fight, so to now find out that AJ's fighting Wallin, I'm disappointed."
Former world champion Froch, 46, believes a star-studded undercard reportedly set to feature the likes of Daniel Dubois would also provide a better contest than Wallin, who is best remembered for troubling Tyson Fury in a 2019 defeat.
He continued: "You can see Anthony Joshua, Eddie Hearn and his team are still in the rebuilding process, because Otto Wallin is not a bad fight.
"It's AJ back out there against someone who is quite capable, we saw him against Tyson Fury and he gave him that nasty cut, he's on a run of a few decent little wins since then, but let's be honest it's nothing to get too excited about.
"There's plenty of names there that could jump in with Anthony Joshua and give us a more exciting fight than Otto Wallin.
"It's frustrating and it's annoying... My first feeling is I'm disappointed with the AJ vs Wilder fight being off and then it's hard to see past that... It's more like stalling tactics and delaying what we want as boxing fans.
"I put that blame totally on Eddie Hearn or Anthony Joshua. Because if AJ wanted to fight Wilder and he was confident enough to make a statement by fighting someone like Wilder and do what Tyson Fury had done twice... then what a statement that would be.
"For me that's a mega fight, Anthony Joshua vs Deontay Wilder, and that's been pulled. We've had the rug pulled out from under our feet, the fans, because we want to see these fights and they're not happening and they're all getting paid mega money out in Saudi."
