Terry Flanagan's upcoming WBO lightweight title defense vs. Felix Verdejo has been postponed.
Just shortly after the two sides have finally agreed to the bout, in which negotiations have been on and off the table for almost a year, Carl Moretti, vice president for Top Rank, confirmed to Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Dia that Flanagan suffered a leg injury. The injury will prevent Flanagan from making his much anticipated defense against the Puerto Rican star.
"Frank Warren sent out an email to Bob Arum confirming that Flanagan injured his leg," Moretti said. "That is all we know up to this point."
The fight was supposed to take place on September 16 in London, hours before the Gennady Golovkin vs. Canelo Alvarez mega fight takes place in Las Vegas.
Both Flanagan and Verdejo had been in talks to fight since last year, but Verdejo suffered a motorcycle accident which took him out of action for the remainder of 2016 and temporarily ended talks of a fight happening in 2016. While Verdejo was busy recovering and trying to shake off the ring rust with a fight in February, Flanagan fought Orlando Cruz and Petr Petrov, successfully defending his title.
As the two were negotiating, issues arose after Verdejo's camp wanted much more money after being reportedly offered $125,000 to take the fight. The fight was either going to be nixed or be issued a purse bid by the WBO, the latter of which Verdejo could have potentially earned significantly less than the $125,000 offered to him.
That fight was going to headline the card in London, but now the headlining fight will be Billy Joe Saunders vs. Willie Monroe Jr. for Saunders' WBO middleweight title.
There is no timetable as to when the fight will be rescheduled.
