The September 18 championship fight between Rafael Marquez and Juan Manuel Lopez has been postponed due to a freak injury to Marquez’s thumb.
Rumors began yesterday (August 19) that the bout was in jeopardy after Marquez accidentally lacerated his thumb inside a car door.
Marquez saw specialist Plutarco Gatcia today after being unable to work through the injury. Apparently, the former bantamweight champion’s training exacerbated the injury and caused further damage to his wrist.
“Rafael had pain and bleeding. He told me he wanted to fight , but nature is wise and there came a period when the pain was not allowing him to put his hand into the glove,” he explained to 411mania.com. “Furthermore, in his eagerness to continue training, he opened up the wound on the thumb and began to experience pain in his wrist. I told him that he had to stop to avoid further impact on his hand.”
Top Rank promotes WBO featherweight champ Juan Manuel Lopez. Marquez is co-promoted by Gary Shaw and Fernado Beltran.
Right now, the group is trying to negotiate a new televised Showtime date for either October or November.
At press time, it is unknown if Lopez will keep the September 18 date against a replacement opponent, as fellow Top Rank fighter Nonito Donaire was scheduled to fight on the undercard.
********************************************
2010 has to have set the record for canceled or postponed fights. The list of great matchups that have failed to see the light of day are: Mosley-Berto, W. Klitschko-Povetkin, Mayweather-Pacquiao, Haye-Klitschkos, Bradley-Maidana, and now Lopez-Marquez. And if the rumors are true you may be adding Dirrell-Ward to that list.
Make no mistake, the fights so far this year have been solid to very good. The Super Six tournament has had upsets, assorted drama and competitive matchups. We crowned a new middleweight champ in Sergio Martinez who put on a nice performance against Kelly Pavlik. And there’s always sleeper fights on ESPN2 and Showtime. But it’s the lack of consistency and long stretches between fights that’s hurt the momentum the sport had in 2009.
Maybe the failure of Mayweather-Pacquiao just set some bad karma for the rest of the year…
Beats, Boxing and Mayhem 