Matthew Macklin has placed his American dream on hold to focus on claiming the British title after an abortive trip to the United States last week.

The Birmingham light-middleweight was due to meet American Chris Troupe last Thursday at the illustrious New York venue of Madison Square Garden

He has already won two fights in the USA and won the hearts of America's large Irish community, thanks to his parents' Donegal roots.

The bout with Troupe was seen as ideal preparation for Macklin ahead of his British title fight with Jamie Moore in Altrincham on May 12.

However, his first ring action of 2006 was scrapped due to a contractual dispute. Both parties agreed to a pre-fight weigh-in with Troupe then agreeing to weigh in again on the night of the fight itself.

However, Troupe reneged on this agreement on the day of the fight and a member of his team admitted that he may well have weighed over 180lbs by the time he entered the ring.

That would have placed him over the light-heavyweight limit and the risks were too great for Macklin before such a prestige fight against Moore.

Billy Graham, who trains both Macklin and Ricky Hatton, said: "Obviously Matthew wanted to go through with the fight but my first priority is to look after my fighter and the weight difference on the night would have been ridiculous. It could easily have been over 20 pounds."

Macklin was also unhappy after his boyhood dream of fighting at Madison Square Garden was shattered.

"I'm really gutted that the fight fell through. I really wanted to make a big impression in front of the New York fans and a lot of people came up to me and said how disappointed they were," he said.

"I don't blame Chris Troupe for what happened because he did what he was contracted to do. So did I but someone else has obviously messed up with regard to arranging the weigh-ins and it's cost me the chance of a dream fight at Madison Square Garden.

"It's been a bad experience for me but at least I have the British title fight with Jamie Moore to look forward to. Winning that title will more than make up for this disappointment."