By Dan Ambrose: WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez has pulled out of his fight this Saturday night against McWilliams Arroyo because of a fractured right hand.
Martinez (17-1, 13 KOs) was previously set to defend against Arroyo (20-4, 15 KOs) in the co-feature bout on DAZN on the Canelo Alvarez vs. Avni Yildirim card at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami, Florida. It’s unclear how long Martinez had the hand injury before he revealed it.
The 26-year-old Martinez wanted to still fight, but because of the swelling in his injured right hand, he was forced to pull out of the match. Martinez says he suffered a broken metacarpal bone in his right hand.
He waited until the last moment to pull out because he was still counting on fighting, but it wasn’t possible. Not surprisingly, McWilliams is upset about the news, and he says was never even told by Matchroom promoter Eddie Hearn about it. He had to learn about it from social media.
Arroyo says he’s hoping to still fight on the card on Saturday, and possibly fight for the interim WBC flyweight title. He’s waiting to find out if someone can fly out to face him. In the meantime, Arroyo is keeping his weight down so that he can weigh-in on Friday.
“I’m very sad and disappointed this happened to me. I was holding onto the last moment,” said Julio Cesar Martinez to Fino Boxing about his fractured right hand. “It was very inflamed. I have a fractured metacarpal.”
With the loss of Martinez, the card takes a major hit because this was easily the best fight on the card.
That’s not a knock on Canelo, but his title defense against his WBC mandatory Yildirim (21-2, 12 KOs) is considered a non-competitive match-up involving a challenger that doesn’t rate a title shot.
Not having Martinez on the card will be a letdown for the boxing public, as it was the only match on Saturday’s card that promised to be a competitive one.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn says Martinez is one of his favorite fighters, and he obviously can’t be happy about the injury. Before this injury, Martinez had performed well in his last four fights, beating these fighters:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk90ziRrHiE
- Moises Calleros
- Jay Harris
- Cristofer Rosales
- Charlie Edwards
“It’s frustrating. This is not a day to hear something like that, but things happen,” said McWilliams Arroyo to Boxing Social about Julio Cesar Martinez’s injury.
“I guess the fight between us is not to be. It’s more than one time now. The last time was on August 20. It’s happened again. It’s kind of frustrating. I did might part, I did my work.
I hope the WBC takes action on this because my career does not depend on my fighting Martinez. If he’s not healthy or if he’s injured, I wish him all the best, but if he can’t fight, I’ve got to go on.
“Most definitely not,” said Arroyo if he had any idea that Rey Martinez was injured. “He got here on Sunday, and I got here on Monday.
“If there was any injury, I don’t think they would have brought us here together. Maybe he got hurt after the press conference. Things do happen in life.
“Not at all,” said Arroyo when asked if Eddie Hearn of Matchroom told him about Martinez’s injury. “I was told by social media. People started calling me, and then my promoters went to my room and talked about it.
“Then I was told they were trying to get a replacement fighter so that I could fight for the interim [WBC] title because I am the #1 challenger, and I’ve been waiting for this for years. I wasn’t handed this spot. I earned it, and I’ve been waiting since last year to fight Martinez.
“It’s incredible what’s happening but hopefully, the WBC will take some action after this. I was told in one or two hours if someone was going to fly out and what they were going to do about it.
“Fighting on the card that he [Canelo] would fight, it would have meant the world to me. I would love to fight tomorrow. I’m still on weight in case I could fight Saturday. I do weigh tomorrow, so let’s see what happens,” said Arroyo.