Photo by: Chris Farina/Top Rank

Undefeated welterweight Jose Benavidez Jr. was shot on Tuesday near his home in Phoenix, Arizona and is recovering at a local hospital with non life-threatening injuries, according to Sgt. Jonathan Howard of the Phoenix Police Department.

The 24-year-old boxer was “walking near the roadway near 5300 W Broadway when an unknown male approached, asked a question, and shot him,” Howard wrote in an email to RingTV.com. “He was taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Area residents report that a gathering occurred at the victim’s residence earlier in the night but it has not yet been determined if that was a factor in this incident.”

The gossip site TMZ.com was the first to report the news and said that Benavidez had been out walking “one of his pets” when he was “approached by an unknown man who pulled out a gun and shot him in the leg.” TMZ spoke to an unnamed source who said the injuries “pose a serious threat to his boxing career.” No arrests have been made. A source told RingTV.com that Benavidez is expected to be released from the hospital shortly.

The 5-11 Benavidez, who is trained by his father, recently fought on the Terence Crawford-Viktor Postol undercard on July 23, winning a decision in a slugfest against gatekeeper Francisco Santana to raise his record to 25-0 with 16 knockouts. There was some discussion before the incident of putting him on the Nov. 5 undercard headlined by Manny Pacquiao. Benavidez won a secondary junior welterweight title in a controversial win against veteran Mauricio Herrera in 2014 and defended it once before moving up to welterweight. He is the older brother of 19-year-old super middleweight David Benavidez (16-0, 15 KOs).

Struggling to locate a copy of THE RING magazine? Try here (Domestic Only) or

SUBSCRIBE