Figueroa injured; fight cancelled

By John Cannon

On his last day of sparring in Philadelphia, Weslaco native and Golden Boy prospect Omar Figueroa injured his right leg which caused him to pull out of his upcoming main event fight on October 21st against the current WBC Youth Lightweight Champion Eric Cruz at the Pharr Events Center.

Omar Figueroa Sr., Omar Jr.’s trainer and manager, spoke about how the injury happened and the events that followed thereafter.

“He was wrapping up his last day of sparring in Philadelphia on Saturday and while going to the corner, his foot went outside of the ring, he stumbled and a nail that was sticking out cut his leg about 5 or 6 inches deep,” said Figueroa Sr. “When he got home, we called Golden Boy and told them what happened. They advised us to wait till Monday to see how he feels. Omar ended up getting 15 stitches and was limping really bad. On Monday, he was still limping and could not put any weight on his leg. Because of that, Golden Boy decided to cancel the fight and told us that we probably would not get anything else for the rest of the year.”

Figueroa Sr. said that Omar Jr. was disappointed because he worked so hard and had an excellent sparring session in preparation for the title fight.

“Omar was very, very upset and I feel really bad for him,” said Figueroa Sr. “I wanted him to become a world champion by the end of the year but only the man upstairs can decide his future. He had an excellent sparring session and was in excellent shape.”

“Omar is a tough kid and really wanted to fight. However, if he is not at 100 percent we can’t take the risk and Golden Boy agreed.”

According to Figueroa Sr., Cruz will possibly face Michelangelo Perez for Cruz’s title and hopes that down the road, Figueroa Jr. will get the shot he deserves.

“What I am hearing is Cruz will defend his title against Perez and that should be a great fight,” said Figueroa Sr. “Hopefully Omar will get a shot against the winner because he definitely deserves it.”

Figueroa Jr. will take some time off to heal up and Figueroa Sr. said that once he is ready to go, he will get him back into training.

“It is probably going to take at least three weeks for him to heal up and then we will reassess the situation,” said Figueroa Sr. “Once he is ready to go, he will start training again and hopefully Golden Boy will get him on an undercard of a fight.”

“But our main concern now is to heal and build that leg up.”

Contact the author

October 15th, 2011

For all the latest boxing news, click here.