Citing a bad bout with the flu, once-beaten junior welterweight veteran Paul Spadafora has pulled out of a Feb. 20 clash with Jake Giuriceo that was scheduled for the Consol Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Spadafora informed RingTV.com on Tuesday night.

As part of an event promoted by Tom Brown of Goossen Promotions, Spadafora-Giuriceo was to happen off television on the undercard of a main event between welterweights Sammy Vasquez and Emmanuel Lartey that will be televised on Showtime’s “ShoBox: The New Generation.”

A 39-year-old former lightweight titleholder who is known as “The Pittsburgh Kid,” Spadafora said he had been training in Las Vegas under Kenny Porter, father and corner man to former IBF welterweight titleholder Shawn Porter.

“I’ve been real sick, man. I’m telling you. Real sick. I just got a bad flu. It’s real bad. I’ve been down for four or five days. I’m salty as hell right now, because I’ve worked so f–king hard, man,” said Spadafora.

“I’ve been out here for three months now training with Kenny Porter here in Vegas, but Kenny Porter was just like, ‘You know, it ain’t worth taking a fight when you’re like this.’ I guess that the older you get, the more that you have to watch what you do and take care of yourself more. You can’t be going outside with no shirt on and whatnot.”

Spadafora (49-1-1, 19 knockouts) is coming off a unanimous decision over Hector Velazquez last July that had followed his loss to twice-beaten contender Johan Perez in November 2013.

Spadafora was once a highly-rated fighter before he was derailed by repeated troubles with the law. He won the IBF lightweight title by unanimous decision over Israel Cardona in August of 1999 and defended it eight times.

“I definitely tried to fight through it, but this s–t really scared me because it had me laid up for five or six days. Your body aches and everything. I’m literally just down. I was so f–king mad, man,” said Spadafora.

“Because there were times when I wanted to come home and just be home after three or four months and to be able to see my daughters. It’s still eight, nine days away, but like Kenny said, I would probably have missed tomorrow and the next day. That would be about 10 days, and I really need those days to sharpen up.”