SEAN McGoldrick was not prepared to play the blame game after a long-awaited homecoming fight on the undercard of Anthony Joshua’s unification clash with Joseph Parker was shelved.

Newport bantamweight McGoldrick had been due to face Englishman Ricky Little at the Principality Stadium in Cardiff last Saturday but the four-round contest failed to materialise.

Unfortunately for the 26-year-old Welshman, the Matchroom Boxing show, broadcast live on Sky Sports Box Office, overran and his bout couldn’t be accommodated.

The scrap with Little was a live float, meaning it didn’t have a set start time and would be fitted into the schedule to fill a gap opened up through other fights finishing early.

But while disappointed to miss out on his big chance in front of nearly 80,000 fans, unbeaten St Joseph’s pro McGoldrick reckons it was “just one of those things”.

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t gutted,” he said.

“I was on such a high last week and looking forward to it so much, but it is part of the sport and I’ve just got to move on and get ready for the next one.

“The circumstances on Saturday weren’t ideal but it’s something I will learn from and use in a positive way.”

McGoldrick got himself ready to fight not long after arriving at the stadium, and there remained hope of him getting into the ring until midway through the main event.

“When I got there they said they expected me to go on between David Price’s fight with Alexander Povetkin and Joshua-Parker,” he added.

“I was ready from 5pm just in case some of the fights finished early but only one did before Price.

“Price-Povetkin then looked as though it could finish early so I started warming up, but 30 seconds before Price was knocked out someone told me I wasn’t going to get on.

“If I had gone on before the Joshua fight it would have been a dream outcome for me – it came close to being the perfect scenario for me but it ended up the worst.

“Even after being told I wouldn’t box they said that if the Joshua fight finished early they were going to get me on, but that didn’t happen either.

“It was just my luck that Joshua was taken the distance for the first time in his professional career.”

He continued: “Everyone wanted to get me on, it was just that the show overran.

“They were expecting one or two fights to finish early but it didn’t work out.

“If they knew it was going to happen they would have put me on at 5pm.

“But they wanted me as a pay-per-view filler and there wasn’t a gap to get me on, which was really unfortunate for me.

“I’ve seen a lot of people giving Eddie Hearn (promoter) stick on Twitter but it wasn’t his fault – it was no-one’s fault.

“I did well with tickets and I'm more gutted for the people who came out to watch me.

“It was a massive occasion and everyone enjoyed the event but I know some people had spent a lot of money to come over from Ireland to see me box.”