Junior welterweight Mauricio Herrera confirmed to TQBR Saturday that he has pulled out of the proposed Aug. 17 main event of ESPN2 Friday Night Fights against San Francisco’s Karim Mayfield, citing a back injury. Herrera’s move was originally reported by Boxingscene.com’s Ernest Gabion earlier Saturday.
TQBR spoke with Herrera about the pull out and he had a few interesting things to say about it.
“Well the back injury was part of it,” Herrera told TQBR on the phone Saturday afternoon. “We hadn’t really signed a contract yet, we weren’t sure we were gonna take it yet. At the time they called me for Mayfield, it was kind of sketchy. The fight is in San Francisco, where he is from, and then I threw my back out too.”
“When I threw out my back, it was only going to delay me a few days for training,” continued Herrera. “But with only three weeks of preparation, we can’t afford to lose any days. I’d rather just have some more time to train rather than risk it.”
Herrera also told TQBR there was talks of him fighting Brandon Rios on the Sept. 15 Julio Cesar Chavez Jr.-Sergio Martinez (middleweight) pay-per-view undercard.
“We haven’t heard anything yet [about them rescheduling], they got in touch about Sept. 15, which should be enough time for Rios to recover,” said Herrera. “They haven’t gotten back to us, but that is still a fight I very much would want.”
Rios and Herrera were originally set to fight on the July 7th HBO Boxing After Dark undercard, but the former lightweight titlist pulled out citing an injury, though it was also reported that he had ballooned up in weight as well.
This leaves Mayfield looking for another opponent for his homecoming fight in the Bay Area, in which TQBR was also told will no longer take place at the Kezar Pavilion in San Francisco. More to come in the next few days…
UPDATE: Monday afternoon, TQBR learned that the Karim Mayfield fight will now take place in Richmond, Calif. at the Craneway Pavilion. The venue hosted a bout in 2011, Ana Julaton’s victory over Francesca Alcanter.
Mark Ortega can be reached via e-mail at ortegaliitr@gmail.com and followed via Twitter at www.twitter.com/MarkEOrtega. Mark also contributes to renowned boxing publications RING Magazine and Boxing Monthly, and is a member of the Boxing Writer’s Association of America and RING Ratings Advisory Panel.
