By Luke Furman

Top middleweight contender Matthew Macklin (29-5, 20K0s) is waiting for a late replacement to get secured after Willie Nelson (21-1-1, 12KOs) withdrew with an elbow injury that is going to keep him out of the ring until the first quarter of 2014.

They were scheduled to meet on December 7th at Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City. HBO was televising the fight as part of the card being headlined by Guillermo Rigondeaux vs. Joseph Agbeko.

Macklin is looking to recover from the June three round knockout loss to IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin. He already hooked back up with trainer Joe Gallagher and also added former opponent Jaime Moore to his corner.

Macklin's promoter, Lou DiBella, is hunting for a new opponent with less than a month to go.

Luke Furman covers boxing for bokser.org