The pair were due to meet in the main event of the Queensberry Promotions event in the French capital on April 25.

But the whole thing collapsed on the Monday of fight week when it was confirmed that Okolie had returned an adverse finding in a VADA test.

Now promoter Frank Warren has broken his silence on the situation, which he branded a "a very, very big disappointment."

During a media roundtable on Thursday, Warren told The Ring: "I'm very disappointed with that but it is what it is.

"It will have to take its course when the Board of Control and UKAD call for the hearing. They will have to go through the procedure. I’m sure he will present his B sample and then, depending on the outcome of that, if it matches the A sample then he's going to have to give an explanation."

Former cruiserweight world champion Okolie (23-1, 17 KOs), who is the WBC's No. 1-rated heavyweight, immediately took to social media to protest his innocence.

He said: "Before anyone starts imagining the worst, following my bicep injury last year, I sustained an elbow injury on the same arm during this camp. I had a treatment on it and now we are here. I truly hope sense prevails.

"I will of course be fully cooperating with all relevant authorities and I'm confident any investigation will clear my name. I won't be making any further comment at this time. Thank you for all your support and see you soon."

Yoka (15-3, 12 KOs), the 34-year-old Queensberry fighter, has not boxed since he knocked out Patrick Korte inside two minutes of their December fight in Lagos, Nigeria.

But his promoter Warren is working hard to find him an outing as quickly as possible after a conflict of interest prevented him from slotting straight into the Queensberry show headlined by Fabio Wardley against Daniel Dubois in Manchester on May 9.

"Tony will be fighting soon," Warren said. "He will be out. We were actually thinking of putting him on this card but that would have meant that Don would have had to do both corners and he said he wanted to focus on Daniel, quite rightly so. Tony will be out fairly soon."