By Miguel Rivera
According to manager and trainer Ricky Marquez, Puerto Rican lightweight contender Felix Verdejo (23-0, 15 KOs) will start 2018 with a goal to erase any doubt that it is his time to become a world champion.
Verdejo fought for the last time on February 3 when he secured a lackluster unanimous decision win over Nicaraguan Oliver Flores.
He was starting to train in Big Bear, California with veteran coach Abel Sanchez, but then suffered a wrist injury that forced him to cancel a planned return in September and he headed back to Puerto Rico.
Verdejo was in line for a world title shot against then WBO world champion Terry Falanaga. The fight was postponed numerous times - and then finally appeared to be within reach, but Verdejo suffered several injuries after joy riding on a motorbike last year and that led to a stint of inactivity that forced the WBO to remove him from the mandatory position.
"He is not going to say what he's going to do, he will demonstrate it. What we want to talk about is going to be shown in the ring so that people can witness his performance," said Marquez to Victor Ortiz.
The next return for Verdejo is being positioned for March 17th as part on ESPN televised card from the Madison Square Garden Theater in New York City.
"We will see if this is the year, we hope it will be the year where we get a world title fight and that it will make it a great year," Marquez added.
"He has kept training. Now we are going to stop for the festive season of Christmas, we will take a break and begin with the full preparations in January. We are going to continue training because we have fighters who fight at the beginning of January and the national amateur tournament is in January so we continue training. But in the case of Felix we'll give him a break."