By Steve Kim
It was a rough and physical fight for Alex Saucedo, who was able to stop Lenny Zappavigna, this past weekend in Oklahoma City in what was a triumphant homecoming bout that was televised nationally by ESPN.
With the victory, he is now in line now to face IBF 140-pound titlist, Maurice Hooker. But given the nature of this last bout will Saucedo be ready for this assignment by the fall?
''His only 'injury' is he got five stitches o his right eye. Is he a little sore? Of course but we're already full steam ahead when it comes to planning the fight with Maurice Hooker in either late October or early November. Which would've been the time frame it it would've been if it had been a first round KO, anyways," explained the V.P. of Boxing Operations for Top Rank, Carl Moretti, to BoxingScene.com.
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While Saucedo was cut and bloodied up, the damage he incurred paled in comparison to Zappavigna, who announced his retirement from the sport after this memorable slugfest.
"So Alex is going to take a couple of weeks off, he's headed to the ESPY's with a bunch of other Top Rank stablemates for the the night," continued Moretti.
"He'll take some time off and we spoke to Sam (Katvoski, who's part of the management group of Saucedo) and we spoke to (trainer) Abel (Sanchez) and everything is full steam already. He's got a lot of momentum, obviously."
On June 9th in Manchester, England, Hooker flew across the pond to defeat Terry Flanagan over 12 rounds to capture the vacant IBF belt.
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com
