The highly anticipated bout between Joseph Parker and Junionr Fa has been pushed to next year.

The boxing heavyweights were due to meet in the ring in December.

However, Duco Events has been formally notified that Fa will have routine surgery next week and will now fight Joseph Parker early next year.

"The new date, expected to be late February or early March, will be confirmed next week," Duco says in a statement on Facebook.

"All tickets and corporate hospitality will remain valid and automatically transfer to the new date. We apologise for any inconvenience.

"If you can no longer attend you can request a refund via Ticketmaster for general tickets or via Duco Events for corporate sales.

"Whilst frustrating, this is certainly not unusual in the sport of boxing and history shows it usually makes the event bigger!"