Liam Conroy will fight Olympic bronze medallist Joshua Buatsi for the vacant British light-heavyweight title in the coming months.

Buatsi was ordered by the British Boxing Board of Control to face the 26-year-old Barrovian, who has won 16 of his 20 professional bouts, after previous holder Callum Johnson relinquished the belt last week.

The fight will take place by the end of May and will be Conroy’s first action in the ring since last March when he stopped Miles Shinkwin inside two rounds to defend his English title at Preston’s Guild Hall.

He has been disrupted by injuries since, with a long-standing hernia problem forcing the Barrow ABC product to undergo surgery.

After returning to training, Conroy was scheduled to make his in-ring return in November, only for a setback to prevent him from doing so in an event at Manchester’s Victoria Warehouse.

Buatsi, who was born in Ghana but moved to Croydon with his family during his childhood, won bronze for Great Britain at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

Since turning professional, the 25-year-old has won all nine of his fights, seven by knockout, and defeated Renold Quinlan inside two minutes in his previous bout, at London’s O2 Arena last month.