Boxing
Dan Rafael, ESPN Senior Writer 6y

Wrist injury forces Jessie Magdaleno to withdraw from Cesar Juarez fight

Boxing

Junior featherweight world titleholder Jessie Magdaleno suffered a left wrist injury during a recent sparring session, forcing him to withdraw from his defense against mandatory challenger Cesar Juarez, Top Rank president Todd duBoef told ESPN on Saturday.

The bout was slated to be part of an ESPN-televised Top Rank tripleheader on Nov. 11 (10:30 p.m. ET) at the Save Mart Center in Fresno, California. DuBoef said the show will go on with the other two featured bouts.

"I'm disappointed for Jessie Magdaleno, I'm disappointed for Cesar Juarez and I'm disappointed for the fight fans who wanted to see this fight," duBoef said. "We'll reschedule the fight and probably see it after the first of the year. It's not the end of the world. It happens. It's part of the business and you have to accept it.

"It's unfortunate because there would be fireworks with that fight. So we'll see the fireworks in 2018 instead of in 2017."

Frank Espinoza, Magdaleno's manager, told ESPN that the injury was a reoccurrence of an injury Magdaleno, a southpaw, suffered about a month ago as he opened training camp.

"At the beginning of camp he had hurt his hand and it seemed to get better," Espinoza said. "We took him to the doctor. Nothing was broken. It felt better and he continued to work. Then it happened again the other day in sparring. His left wrist is swollen. He was kind of bummed out about it when I talked to him. He was down. It's a shame, but you can't prevent injuries. I'm certainly not going to put my fighter in the ring unless he's 100 percent."

The Los Angeles Times first reported Magdaleno's withdrawal.

Magdaleno (25-0, 18 KOs), of Las Vegas, was due to make the second defense of the 122-pound belt he won by controversial decision against Nonito Donaire in November 2016. Magdaleno, 25, made his first defense by second-round knockout of Adeilson Dos Santos on April 22.

Juarez (20-5, 15 KOs), of Mexico, was due to get his second world title opportunity. Juarez, 26, lost a highly competitive and hard-fought decision to Donaire in December 2015.

In the final bout of the card, up-and-comers Jose Ramirez (20-0, 15 KOs), a big ticket seller from nearby Avenal, California, who will pack the arena, will take on Mike Reed (23-0, 12 KO), of Waldorf, Maryland, in a 10-round battle of unbeaten junior welterweights. The opening match will pit Russian-born, Montreal-based Artur Beterbiev (11-0, 11 KOs), one of boxing's most devastating punchers, against Germany's Enrico Koelling (23-1, 6 KOs) for one of the light heavyweight world title belts that Andre Ward vacated upon his retirement last month.

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