Boxing
Dan Rafael, ESPN Senior Writer 6y

Omar Figueroa Jr. faces DUI charge ahead of fight with Adrien Broner

Boxing

While former four-division world titleholder Adrien Broner faces a misdemeanor charge for sexual battery stemming from a Monday incident at an Atlanta shopping mall, his opponent for his next fight is also in legal hot water.

Former lightweight world titleholder Omar Figueroa Jr. faces a driving under the influence charge in Riverside County, California.

Figueroa and Broner are scheduled to fight in a junior welterweight world title elimination fight in the main event of a Showtime-televised card on April 21 at a site to be determined, possibly Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York.

Figueroa, 28, of Weslaco, Texas, was arrested by the Indian Wells Police Department at 3:14 a.m. on Jan. 29, according to Riverside County's online records and confirmed to ESPN by the county sheriff's office.

Figueroa, listed at 5-foot-8, 170 pounds -- 30 pounds heavier than the contract weigh for the fight -- was booked into the jail at 6:28 a.m. Jan. 29 and released on his own recognizance.

His next court date for the case is scheduled for March 26 at 7:30 a.m. at the Indio Larson Justice Center in Indio, California.

Figueroa (27-0-1, 19 KOs), who is trained by Indio-based trainer Joel Diaz, and Broner (33-3, 24 KOs) are due to meet in a final elimination fight to earn the mandatory position to fight for the WBC's 140-pound title against whoever emerges with the belt from a series of upcoming fights.

Regis Prograis and Julius Indongo meet for the vacant interim title on March 9, and Jose Ramirez and Amir Imam will fight for the vacant full belt on March 17. The winners will then have to face each other with that winner obligated to face the Broner-Figueroa victor.

Figueroa has been chronically inactive largely because of hand injuries, but he sent former world titleholder Robert Guerrero into retirement by knocking him out in the third round in July in Figueroa's first fight in 19 months.

Figueroa defended his lightweight world title twice in 2014 before being stripped of the 135-pound belt because he was unable to make a mandatory defense by the deadline due to a severe cut suffered in a previous fight.

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