A European title fight born on a social networking site has died by the same means.

The July 23 televised bill at Cardiff’s Motorpoint Arena had been scheduled with Gavin ‘the Rock’ Rees defending his lightweight title against Liverpool’s Derry Matthews.

Promoter Eddie Hearn had pencilled in Rees v Matthews to replace a cancelled Darren Barker bill in Essex but will now need to look elsewhere after Rees withdrew with ligament damage in his left hand.

The fight in now expected to be postponed until September.

The battle orginally came about after Matthews offered his services on Twitter.

“It all started on Twitter when Eddie Hearn said he was on his way to meet Gavin Rees to talk about his first defence of the European title,” Matthews explained at the time.

“I sent him a message, as a bit of banter, saying he should bring the belt to Liverpool and I’ll fight him.

“Everything just went from strength to strength from there and I signed for the fight on the Saturday night.

“The money is not the best but it is all about winning the belt and what comes after it. But for now I’m fully focused on Gavin Rees.”

However, Rees has been forced to pull out of the contest and followed suit by revealing his pain via the social networking site.

"Fight is off due to ligament damage in my left hand, absolutely gutted, hope we can rearrange soon as it’s better," he tweeted.

Trainer Gary Lockett revealed there had simply been no choice but to pull out his man.

“Gavin will see a specialist today but he’s not in great shape, he’s damaged the tendons around one of his knuckles and can barely clench his fist," he said.

“We were supposed to be going to Scotland for three days of sparring with Ricky Burns, but Gavin could barely make a fist and certainly couldn’t throw a punch so it was a waste of everyone’s time to delay at all, we had to pull him out straight away."

Lockett made clear that he doesn’t condone the ‘fight injured, use it as an excuse’ attitude of others, particularly after David Haye’s toe incident.

“Absolutely not, it’s a joke, you either pull out or if you fight hurt, you keep your mouth shut about it,” he said.

Lockett revealed that Rees is upset with the news.

“He’s devastated, really, really disappointed, he was raring to go," he said. “He’s enjoying everything so much at the moment, his training, even the dieting and losing weight the correct way.

“It’s disappointing for all parties but Gavin will be back and can’t wait to fight.”