Arum Confident "The Old Verdejo" Will Reappear Saturday Night

By Keith Idec

Bob Arum is convinced the Felix Verdejo that so impressed the prominent promoter as recently as late last year will reappear Saturday night.

Verdejo (21-0, 14 KOs) has won his last two bouts by wide margins, yet hasn’t displayed the talent and entertaining style during those two victories that once led Arum and his decision-makers at Top Rank Inc. to consider the former Puerto Rican Olympian a future star.

The 23-year-old lightweight was well aware that he didn’t wow anyone with his past two performances, a pair of 10-round, unanimous-decision victories over Brazil’s William Silva (23-1, 14 KOs) on February 27 in The Theater at Madison Square Garden and Mexico’s Jose Luis Rodriguez (18-9, 11 KOs) on April 16 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Consequently, Verdejo made a firmer commitment to focusing on training for his HBO fight Saturday night against Mexico’s Juan Jose Martinez (25-2, 17 KOs) in The Theater.

“He was the shining light of all those guys from that [2012 Summer Olympics],” Arum told BoxingScene.com. “He had looked sensational and he was just destroying his opposition. But in his last couple fights, including the one in The Theater, he looked OK, but nothing special.

“When we looked into it, we found out that while he continued to spar and everything, he was having a good time [during training camp]. He wasn’t really doing anything wrong, but he was hanging out with his friends and so forth. And he realized he couldn’t do that, that he has to concentrate on boxing, and that he has to do that around the clock. He’s ready now to make the sacrifices and he did that in preparation for this fight. He lived in Ricky Marquez’s house, he didn’t associate with his friends and I think you’re gonna see the old Verdejo.”

The 30-year-old Martinez isn’t an elite lightweight, but he has lost just once since his second professional fight in May 2010. That defeat came against the Philippines’ Rey Bautista (36-3, 25 KOs), who won a technical decision against Martinez after the nasty cut on Bautista’s left eyelid caused their September 2014 fight to end after seven rounds.

Martinez is 6-0 since the Bautista bout, but is an opponent against whom Verdejo is expected to look good. After what Verdejo and Marquez, Verdejo’s trainer/manager, promised Top Rank president Todd duBoef and Top Rank vice president of boxing operations Carl Moretti during a trip to Puerto Rico before this training camp started, Arum is certain that will happen in the opener of HBO’s “Boxing After Dark” doubleheader Saturday night.

“We’re gonna see the old Verdejo,” Arum said. “I’m absolutely confident of that.”

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.