Lightweight contender Felix Verdejo suffered a training camp injury, forcing him out of a Sept. 22 fight at the Tucson Arena in Tucson, Arizona.
Puerto Rico's Verdejo was scheduled to face Antonio Lozada Jr. in a scheduled 10-round bout on the undercard of the Top Rank ESPN card headlined by featherweight world titleholder Oscar Valdez making his third defense against Genesis Servania.
Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti told ESPN on Monday that Verdejo "sustained an injury in training camp and will not be fighting on the card. What kind of injury -- the kind of injury that will not allow him to fight Sept. 22."
Moretti did not want to elaborate on the particulars of the injury, but BoxingScene.com reported that Verdejo, who had been training in Big Bear Lake, California, slipped in the shower and injured his right wrist.
Coincidentally, Verdejo (23-0, 15 KOs) only took the fight with Lozada (37-2, 31 KOs), of Mexico, in order to stay busy for his mandatory title shot against England's Terry Flanagan (33-0, 13 KOs), which was supposed to take place last fall but was postponed when Verdejo suffered injuries in a motorbike accident in Puerto Rico. Then it was rescheduled for Sept. 13 but postponed again when Flanagan withdrew because of a leg injury.
Moretti said Verdejo, 24, a 2012 Olympian and the 2014 ESPN.com prospect of the year, has returned to Puerto Rico "for further evaluations. Once those occur, a decision will be made to determine what is next. There is no time frame for this, nor should there be."
Also, welterweight up-and-comer Alex Saucedo (25-0, 15 KOs), who was also training in Big Bear Lake at the same gym as Verdejo, suffered a groin injury, forcing him to drop off the Sept. 22 card, Top Rank matchmaker Brad "Abdul" Goodman told ESPN.
Saucedo, 23, of Oklahoma City, was due to face Gustavo Vittori (19-2-1, 10 KOs), 28, of Argentina, in a 10-round bout.
