Bradley Pryce has been forced to withdraw from his planned fight in Las Vegas next Saturday.

The Commonwealth light-middleweight champion, 27, was scheduled to face Norberto Bravo on the undercard of the Joe Calzaghe-Bernard Hopkins fight on April 19.

But a delay in securing a visa has led his trainer, Enzo Calzaghe, to decide that Pryce does not have enough preparation time.

"I'm very disappointed and I'm still getting over the shock of not being able to box," Pryce told BBC Sport. "Joe did a lot of sparring before he went and he would have wanted to do a lot of sparring the week before.

"With the visa I've been unable to help with the sparring, so Nathan Cleverly has been doing it on his own.

"So I'm gutted because normally I like to help out with the boys in the gym.

"But Joe is in great shape and I believe he is going to give an excellent performance"

Calzaghe will make his debut on American soil by stepping up to light-heavyweight to challenge Hopkins at the Thomas & Mack Center in a fight that airs live on Setanta Sports 1.

"I've missed a week of training already out there with them and by getting out there Wednesday it only gives me a few days," Pryce added. "I suppose in the long run he's [Enzo Calzaghe] made the right choice with the delay.

"But for me it's a nightmare because I could have boxed on Gavin Rees' bill in Cardiff that's just gone, so I missed out on a payday there and now I've missed out on another payday."

Processing Pryce's visa is thought to have been complicated by several public order offences collected as an alcohol-fuelled teen.

Pryce says he regrets his actions as a youth, which he has long-since left behind.

"There's definitely something gone wrong somewhere, maybe I should have applied for my visa way before I did," Pryce continued. "But I did everything I was asked to do at the time I was asked to do it.

"I'm looking to get it [the visa] back maybe on Monday or Tuesday, but with the flight on Saturday I'm looking at getting out there maybe Wednesday.

"So Enzo has said that's not enough time for me to adjust and he doesn't want to take the risk.

"It's very disappointing, as a boxer I always want to fight so I would have been happy to go out Thursday and fight Saturday - that's the type of person I am.

"But at the end of the day Enzo has to look out for the welfare of his boxer, so it's not going to happen."

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