Nicholas Walters has been stripped of his WBA featherweight title after failing to make the weight for his latest defence.

The Jamaican sensation, unbeaten in 25 fights, initially came in 1.4lbs over the 126lbs limit and could only get down to 127lbs at the second time of asking.

His fight against Miguel Marriaga will go ahead as scheduled at New York's Madison Square Garden, and the Colombian will still be world champion if he wins.

But Walters' reign as the WBA's Super champion is done, and he is now likely to move up a division to super-featherweight.

The 29-year-old, who last fought in October when he stopped Nonito Donaire, said: "I'm coming off an eight-month layoff. I tried everything,"

Belfast's super-bantamweight world champion Carl Frampton followed the weigh-in saga from afar and tweeted: "Looks like Walters will be a super featherweight very soon. Music to the ears of the featherweights."