One of world boxing's biggest promoters has accused George Kambosos Jr of a "lack of respect" after the Australian superstar failed to front for a pre-fight face-off in Sydney.
Kambosos was a conspicuous no-show from a scheduled meeting with his rival, countryman Jake Wyllie, at Qudos Bank Arena.
Wyllie has stepped up on less than a week's notice to replace Daud Yordan on Saturday night after the Indonesian senator was forced out of the slated super-lightweight bout on medical grounds.
Eddie Hearn from Matchroom promotions was caught off guard by Kambosos' failure to front on Wednesday, with all other fighters on the card arriving to fulfil their media responsibilities.
"It's a lack of respect. I don't want to stoke any fires, but it's very disrespectful," Hearn said.
But Kambosos claimed his absence was just a misunderstanding after turning up later at another Matchroom promotion to speak with youths at suburban Sydney gym.
"What face-off? No one told me about no face-off," the former unified world lightweight champion told AAP after arriving in his flash Audi.
But Kambosos's father Jim said his son was too busy preparing for Saturday's fight.
Wyllie took Kambosos' snub in his stride, declaring "I've got him on the back foot already".
"I'm not worried at all," he told AAP.
"I just think that if he wants to play these little silly things, it's up to him.
"I'll just go to the community thing and we'll do it (face off) there. It is what it is. All that matters is what happens in the ring."
Wyllie has an impressive 16-from-17 record, with 15 of his victories coming via knockout.
The 24-year-old is vowing to shatter Kambosos's dream of landing a possible world title shot against unbeaten American Richardson Hitchins with a win over Wyllie.
"We've got this opportunity and I've been doing everything right, so there's no reason why I wouldn't take this fight and I'm going in to it fully confident that I can do a great job," he said.
"Everyone goes on about the knockouts but, look, the knockouts just come. I don't go looking for them. It just happens naturally.
"So I really believe that George hasn't been in there with a puncher like myself and I think on Saturday night I'll show that."
Kambosos (21-3, 10KOs) is stepping up a weight division in a high-risk home-coming.
The 31-year-old hasn't fought in Sydney since 2016.
And after relinquishing his IBF and WBO straps to American Devan Haney in his bold bid to become Australia's first undisputed world champion in the four-belt era, then losing to Ukraine great Vasyl Lomachenko, Kambosos knows he is rolling the dice.
