By Ronnie Nathanielsz

Hard-hitting Bernabe Concepcion’s WBO featherweight title fight against champion Steven Luevano is off.

In a strange twist, both fighters who were due to slug it out on the undercard of the blockbuster showdown between Filipino boxing hero Manny Pacquiao and Britain’s Ricky “The Hitman” Hatton at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on May 2, were injured in training .

Luevano (36-1-1, 15 KO’s) -reportedly started having pains in his torso while training several days ago according to his manager Cameron Dunkin. Luevano’s manager told boxing writer Dan Rafael of ESPN that Luevano was “a tough guy and was trying to continue and to work through it but he couldn’t continue.”

Dunkin said there was no word on the nature of the injury but Luevano was scheduled to have it checked late Tuesday – Wednesday in Manila – to find out what the problem was.

Dunkin said “I know Steven and he wants this fight” pointing out that Luevano has been in camp for seven weeks “getting ready” for the fight with Concepcion, the former North American Boxing Federation super bantamweight champion.

Conditioning expert Alex Ariza who works with both Pacquiao and WBO bantamweight champion Gerry Penalosa told BoxingScene.com, insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports in an overseas telephone conversation that the 21 year old Concepcion (28-1-1, 16 KO’s) also suffered a slight injury.

Ariza said that Concepcion “hurt his shoulder a little bit” while working out at the Wild Card Gym on Tuesday.

Top Rank president Todd duBoef told Rafael they were disappointed for Luevano who was “looking forward to fighting on the show.” He added that Luevano was “probably the best featherweight in the world and he was in a very solid fight with Concepcion .” DuBeof added “hopefully we can re-schedule it for another day when he (Luevano) is health.”

Luevano successfully defended his title against Australia ’s Billy Dib on the Bernard Hopkins-Kelly Pavlik undercard last October 18.