By Dan Ambrose: After waiting around for an entire year, undefeated #1 WBO Felix Verdejo (23-0, 15 KOs) will face WBO lightweight champion Terry Flanagan (33-0, 13 KOs) on September 16 at the Copper Box Arena in London, England. This is a mandatory defense for the 28-year-old Flanagan.
Verdejo has wanted a world title shot against Flanagan for some time, but I wasn’t until recently that he was ranked high enough for him to force the issue with the World Boxing Organization. If not for Verdejo’s high ranking, he likely would be still waiting his turn to get a title shot. I don’t think it would have been realistic for Verdejo to assume that Flanagan would ever give him a title shot in a voluntary defense. Verdejo is too good for his own good.
If this fight had happened 2 years ago, most boxing fans would say it would be a mismatch in favor of the younger 24-year-old Verdejo, but he’s not looked good in 3 out of his last 4 fights against Oliver Flores, Jose Luis Rodriguez and William Silva. Right now, it’s an even fight. Either of these guys can win.
A deal was reached this week on Thursday between Flanagan’s promoter and Verdejo’s promoters at Top Rank. It’s unclear how much Verdejo’s purse will be. There were previous reports that Verdejo would only receive $175,000 for the fight. His management was looking for $450,000.
Flanagan has successfully defended his WBO title 5 times since winning the vacant belt in a 5th round injury stoppage win over Jose Zepeda on July 11, 2015. The fight was stopped in the 2nd round after Zepeda suffered a dislocated left shoulder. There was supposed to be a rematch, but it never happened. Flanagan moved on and has looked good in beating Diego Magdaleno, Derry Mathews, Mzonke Fana, Orlando Cruz and Petr Petrov. Flanagan will be looking to make his 6th title defense of his WBO belt.
If Flanagan can get past Verdejo, he has the option of looking for a unification fight against the likes of WBC lightweight champion Mikey Garcia or IBF champion Robert Easter Jr. Those would be risky fights for Flanagan, due to the punching power of both fighters. The 5’11” Easter Jr. presents his own problems with his formidable size for a lightweight. Flanagan would need to deal with all that height and reach that Easter Jr. has going for him. He’s not that popular, so it wouldn’t be a fight that would bring Flanagan much notoriety if he were to beat Easter Jr.
“It’s agreed to,” Top Rank president Carl Moretti said to ESPN.com. “Everything with Verdejo was completed [Thursday night]. I’m told Flanagan and Frank have their deal and now we have a fight.”
This should be a good fight. The southpaw Flanagan will have the home country advantage in fighting in front of his British fans against Verdejo in London. Flanagan fights well when he’s getting a lot of support from his boxing fans.
For Verdejo to win, he’s going to need to motivate himself enough to overcome the pro-Flanagan crowd at the Copper Box Arena. We just saw how Australian Jeff Horn was able to fight at a high level battling Manny Pacquiao in front of his hometown fans last Saturday fight in Brisbane, Australia. Horn might have lost that fight if not for his fans rooting him on the entire fight.
Verdejo has not been fighting at a high level lately. If he can’t fight better than what we’ve seen him in recent fights, he’s going to taste defeat at the hands of the southpaw Flanagan. This is a much tougher opponent than the guys that Verdejo has been fighting thus far. Verdejo will need to make some adjustments quickly in order to keep from falling behind fast and possibly getting knocked out by Flanagan.
Flanagan looked very good in his last fight in beating a very good opponent in Petr Petrov by a one-sided 12 round unanimous decision on April 8 at the Manchester Arena in Manchester, England. Flanagan dominated Petrov, besting him by the scores 116-112, 120-108 and 118-110. That performance showed how good Flanagan is, as he made several adjustments to the tactics that Petrov was using. Flanagan was able to adjust each step of the way to outclass a high caliber fighter.
Five years ago, Verdejo fought in the 2012 Summer Olympics for Puerto Rico, beating Juan Huertas [Panama] and Ahmed Mejri [Tunisia] before losing to Vasyl Lomachenko [Ukraine] by a 14-9 score in the quarterfinals. Verdejo turned pro in 2012, and it was thought by some in the boxing world that he would be the next Felix Trinidad.
Unfortunately, Verdejo hasn’t developed in the same way that Trinidad did. Verdejo doesn’t seem like a natural born fighter at times. He doesn’t react well when he faces guys that are motivated and putting pressure on him. Verdejo’s opponents have seemed to realize this, seeing that they’re starting to attack him now.
In Verdejo’s last fight against Oliver Flores, he struggled to beat him by a 10 round unanimous decision on February 3 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. The fight was scored 99-91, 96-94, and 98-92. Boxing News 24 had Flores winning that fight by 2 rounds by a 6 rounds to 4 score. Verdejo had the home country advantage over the Nicaraguan Flores, who came into the fight having been knocked out in the 3rd round in his previous fight against Takashi Uchiyama. Flores wasn’t too pleased with the scores for his loss to Verdejo, as he thought he deserved the victory.
Last year Verdejo was injured in a motorcycle crash. Luckily for Verdejo, he only suffered cuts, scratches and bruises. However, Verdejo stayed out of the ring for the remainder of the year in 2016. He could have challenged Flanagan last year, but the accident delayed the fight from happening.
It’s perhaps a good thing that Verdejo didn’t fight Flanagan last year, considering how poor he looked when he did come back earlier this year to face Flores in February. That should have been an easy fight for Verdejo. Flores is a fighter that Flanagan would have likely taken apart piece by piece.