Arum Eyes Five Fights, World Title Shot For Verdejo in 2016

By Steve Kim

Hot lightweight prospect Felix Verdejo (19-0, 14KOs) makes his 2016 debut this Saturday night at the Theater of Madison Square Garden against Brazilian William Silva (23-0, 14KOs). It's a fight that will co-headline an HBO broadcast featuring Terence Crawford's defense of his WBO 140-pound title versus Hank Lundy.

For Verdejo, this could be the start of a pivotal campaign.

Verdejo was in action three times in 2015. Because a hand injury interfered with his usually busy schedule of fights, his activity is going to pick up significantly in the coming months. There is already a date on April 16th being kicked around for Puerto Rico.

"Absolutely, he's going to be fighting maybe five times this year, including hopefully a world title fight in the late fall, early winter of this year and we expect him going into 2017 to be a major pay-per-view star," said the chairman of Top Rank, Bob Arum, to BoxingScene.com.

Should everything go well this weekend, this wont be his appearance at the Garden for 2016.

Arum confirmed to BoxingScene. - Madison Square Garden is on hold.( Verdejo) has a fight coming up Saturday and then a fight at home in April and then he will fight right before the Puerto Rican Day Parade."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com