LONDON - JOE GALLAGHER branded Lauren Price and her team ‘disrespectful’ after they missed an arranged photoshoot on Tuesday of fight week.

Gallagher’s welterweight world champion Natasha Jonas will put her IBF and WBC belts on the line against WBA champion Price at the Royal Albert Hall on Friday night.

It is the first time ever that a women’s fight has headlined at the famous old venue in central London and it is expected to be completely sold out.

However, one supposedly scheduled promotional occasion fell by the way side on Tuesday morning, when Price apparently failed to show for a ‘head-to-head’ with her opponent Jonas, who was left waiting around by the error.

And Jonas’ trainer Gallagher did not take kindly to the decision, accusing Team Price of being both ‘disrespectful’ and ‘out of order’ while suggesting that her famous coach Rob McCracken should know better.

Gallagher said: “It’s fight week and you all come down because you’re assigned to be at a place at 11 o’clock for a head-to-head. Whether it be Anthony Joshua against Daniel Dubois or it’s Fury-Usyk, it’s just a standard start to fight week.

“To come downstairs and do a check-weight at 10:30am and be told Lauren isn’t here for the photoshoot, it smacked a little bit of disrespect. I got the memo last week, everyone got the schedule, so I thought it was bang out of order the disrespect from Lauren and the team.

“There’s no excuses because she’s got people around her. Rob is a fantastic coach and has been involved with two of the best fighters for years in Carl Froch and Anthony Joshua and he understands fight week and the obligations for fighters. Not turning up I thought was out of order.”

However Price was quick to defend herself after the accusation, insisting that she received false information from the broadcaster Sky as to her requirements on Tuesday.

She said: “Obviously I base myself in Sheffield, I haven’t been home to Wales. I was training at home on Saturday and we actually had a phone call with Sky and I was told I didn’t have to be in London on Tuesday at 11 because we had a check weight with the Boxing Board of Control at 9:30am in Sheffield so to come to London at 4 o’clock. So it was a cross communication. All I’ve done is be respectful.”

McCracken, a veteran of huge fight weeks as a result of his work with Joshua, Froch and many others over the years, was happy to shoulder the blame.

He said: “We’d be annoyed if we got kept waiting around. There’s a bit of miscommunication and I‘m probably the villain in the piece because I was told it would probably be pushed by until later. So apologies to Joe and Natasha hanging around. I will take that one on the chin, it’s not intentional. Natasha knows me, I wouldn’t dream of doing that.”