Aside from losing his IBF super bantamweight strap to Nonito Donaire, Jr. last July 7, South African Jeffrey Mathebula will also half to deal with being sidelined for a while to let his broken jaw heal.
Mathebula’s promoter Branco Milenkovic was quoted by Sport24.com saying “he (Mathebula) finished the fight with a broken jaw,” and added that the pain that was associated with what was originally thought of as just a case of a broken tooth, lingered even after the fighter returned to South Africa.
“The pain persisted when we returned to South Africa,” added the BSP promoter, “and X-rays revealed that Mathebula’s jaw was, in fact, broken and he will now require surgery and be out of boxing for a lengthy period.”
Mathebula is being praised by the South African sports media for his courage and bravery for enduring such pain and finishing the fight with the caliber of fighter such as Donaire.
Rigondeaux gets Marroquin in undercard of Martinez-Chavez, Jr.
Top Rank has started to beef up its undercard bouts for Martinez vs. Chavez, Jr. on September 15 at the Thomas & Mack Center in Las Vegas by pitting WBA super bantamweight champion Guillermo Rigondeaux (10-0-0, 8 KOs) against 22-year-old Robert Marroquin (22-1-0, 15 KOs).
Marroquin at one point was being heralded as a top prospect until he suffered a split decision loss to Francisco Leal in April of 2011. Since then, Marroquin has gone on a 3-fight winning streak against journeymen opponents. The Dallas native has power and is confident of his chances against Rigondeaux, whom he considers as the best fighter in the super bantamweight division.
With Rigondeaux recently inking a new contract with Top Rank, the idea is that the youg Marroquin is being fed to the veteran lion to pad up his resume. Unfortunately, and as much as Rigondeaux has been calling out Donaire for a unification bout, a win over Marroquin does little to pad up his case and popularity. Why not face a proven opponent and beat him convincingly like Wilfredo Vazquez, Jr., then further call out Donaire in hopes to lure him to a fight?
