A lack of ticket sales meant the appearance of former world heavyweight boxing champion Tim Witherspoon at Prestbury Sports Bar in Warminster yesterday had to be cancelled.

The American, who was a sparring partner for Muhammad Ali and was nicknamed “Terrible” Tim, held the WBC and WBA World Heavyweight Championship titles during his career.

Witherspoon was due to speak and conduct a question and answer session as part of a tour of venues in England, but unfortunately poor ticket sales resulted in the event being cancelled on Thursday.

Pete Bartley, co-owner of Prestbury Sports Bar, said: “It was cancelled due to lack of ticket sales. Lots of people said they were interested, but there were not enough people who actually bought tickets.

“We said we would get a certain number and we didn’t achieve that. We said we could see how many bought tickets on the door, but Tim was coming down from Doncaster and didn’t want to risk it.

“It was a shame as there was lots of interest and, apparently he has sold out everywhere else, but we have plenty more events coming up in the future.”

Prestbury Sports Bar’s next celebrity visit will see former Chelsea players Ray Wilkins and Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris appear in June.

For more information, visit www.prestburysportsbar.com