Eddie Hearn removes Ohara Davies from O2 fight night bill after 'offensive' tweets towards Tommy Coyle

Ohara Davies has won 16 of his 17 professional fights (Getty)

Eddie Hearn has removed Londoner Ohara Davies from the bill of a major fight night at the O2 Arena in February after the super-lightweight goaded his rival Tommy Coyle by declaring the Sun is his favourite newspaper and tweeting “BuyTheSun”.

The 28-year-old fighter Coyle, who is originally from Hull, has been an outspoken critic of the newspaper, which has long been shunned on Merseyside over its controversial coverage of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989 in which 96 Liverpool football fans died.

Last year Coyle tweeted: “Just been offered a free Sun Newspaper at petrol station. Out of respect for my Liverpool pals and fans I wouldn’t take one if they paid me.”

Among a series of now deleted tweets, Davies, 25, claimed: “The Sun is my favourite newspaper ... I will wear their logo on my shorts and they will work with Eddie Hearn to promote my fight one day.” He also tweeted to Coyle: “After I knock you out my first interview will be with the Sun,” before adding “#BuyTheSun”.

Davies, who has won 16 of his 17 professional fights and is hoping for a world title bout in the coming year, later issued an apology citing “poor judgment” and claimed to be “totally ignorant” of the sensitive reasons behind Coyle’s stance towards the newspaper.

However, the promoter Hearn released a statement on Saturday removing Davies from the ‘British Beef’ bill, which will be headlined by the cruiserweight meeting between London rivals Lawrence Okolie and Isaac Chamberlain.

Tommy Coyle celebrates his win over Martin Gethin (Getty) (GETTY IMAGES)

“Following comments made by Ohara Davies on social media yesterday, we have removed him from our February 3rd show at the O2 Arena,” read Hearn’s statement.

“Whilst I believe his comments were made through ignorance they were unacceptable and highly offensive to many of our friends, fighters and to a city that we have a huge amount of respect for.”

A joint statement from his coach Tony Sims and manager Charlie Sims confirmed Davies has been suspended until further notice. “A hearing will be held early in the new year to review the future career of Ohara Davies at Matchroom Elite Gym and Sims Sports Management,” they added.