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Felix Verdejo out for rest of the year, back in 2017

Photo by: Naoki Fukuda
Fighters Network
09
Sep

Felix Verdejo, who is back home after a motorcycle accident last month left him with lacerations on his face and body, is out for the rest of the year and will be making his return in 2017, Top Rank’s Gardy Lopez told RingTV.com on Friday.

No plans have been made for Verdejo’s first fight back and against who it will be, Lopez said. Verdejo crashed his motocross bike on Aug. 7 in his native Puerto Rico. Verdejo spent six days in the Rio Piedras Medical Center for treatment of minor scrapes and bruises and was lucky to escape the fall without any internal bleeding or broken bones, Lopez said.

“He’s just resting and he’s going to rest until next year,” Lopez said in a phone interview. “He will take the rest of the year to heal everything and then he will get back next year when he’s 100%. So we don’t have any plans for him, when he’s fighting or anything like that.”

Verdejo (22-0, 15 knockouts) has recovered to the point where he can move around in the gym but isn’t back to full contact or sparring yet, thus the plan to shelve him for the remainder of 2016, Lopez said. The 23-year-old was in talks to face WBO lightweight titleholder Terry Flanagan (31-0, 12 KOs) on Nov. 5 in Las Vegas on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao-Jessie Vargas, but that has obviously been put on hold while he recovers.



“Right now the focus is still the same, for him to get back to 100%,” Lopez said. “And once that happens we can start talking about boxing again. Right now, all the scratches are already healed up and the new skin is growing again where he suffered the scratches.”

Verdejo, a former Olympian, last fought on June 11 at Madison Square Garden. He showed glimpses of the potential that made him a celebrated prospect, stopping rugged Juan Jose Martinez in the fifth round of a match that was designed to allow Verdejo to regain the momentum he had lost in his two previous lackluster efforts against Jose Luis Rodriguez in April and William Silva this past February. In those fights, Verdejo admitted he had lost a little focus in training after a rapid rise to the start to his career.

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