By Miguel Rivera
After spending six days at the Medical Center Rio Piedras for injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident, Puerto Rican boxer Felix 'El Diamante' Verdejo was given his release on Friday afternoon and sent home where he will continue his recovery.
According to manager/trainer Ricky Marquez, restarting his boxer's career is secondary. The main focus right now is Verdejo's physical recovery.
Verdejo, the Latino lightweight champion of the World Boxing Organization (WBO), was in negotiations to challenge WBO champion Terry Flanagan of the UK on November 5th. The young fighter suffered lacerations and cuts to much of his body after losing control of a motorcycle on Sunday. He was rushed to a medical facility where he remained until Friday afternoon.
The Puerto Rican boxer returns to the Medical Center next week to eveluate several of the lacerations, some of them to the head and face.
"He has to come back next week," said Marquez to El Vocero. "We will wait for him to recover from all the abrasions that he has and give him sufficient to be able to train and fight again. He looks great. He tells me he does not hurt anywhere. He doesn't have any joint pain. What he does have are abrasions to the feet, elbows, shoulders and several other areas."
Verdejo, 23, is the mandatory challenger Flanagan, but his promoter Top Rank has paused the negotiations after the accident took place.
The fight between Verdejo and Flanagan had been preliminarily planned to be part of the event on November 5 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas, a card being headlined by a world title bout between Manny Pacquiao and the current WBO champion in the welterweight division, Jessie Vargas.
"Regarding boxing, we will not talk about anything until the wounds are completely healed. We'll talk after that," Marquez said.
Back in June, Verdejo stopped Juan José 'Piquet' Martinez at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, and he improved to 22-0 and 15 knockouts.