By Steve Kim
On Saturday night at the Theater of Madison Square Garden, lightweight hopeful Felix Verdejo improved to 18-0 (13 KO's) with a wide ten round decision over Ivan Najera by the scores of 100-88(twice) and 99-89, flooring the tough native of San Antonio, Texas in the fifth and seventh rounds.
But it turns out the young Puerto Rican came into this bout with lingering issues with his left hand that will require a procedure.
His manager/trainer Ricky Marquez explained after the fight - "I think it affected him from the first round. Something in his face, to me, it said it hurt him. I think it really did hurt him, he told me for the last rounds he couldn't really use the left hand. That's why he turned to southpaw, he was trying to use the right hand, jab-hook, jab-hook. He couldn't use his left hand anymore.
"Maybe he was trying to protect his hands," continued Marquez. "That's why he didn't use the jab as much as we would like to see him use it. Still, he used it but he uses it a little more and the left hook he couldn't use it as much as he wanted.
The left hook is Verdejo's favored weapon.
Time is on his side as he is still just 22-years old. Verdejo is scheduled to go to Los Angeles according to Marquez by the end of the month and get his hand looked at.
"If the injury is what the doctor told us it is, it wont take more than three months to recover from the injury,"said Marquez, who expects Verdejo back in the ring in October.
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.