Verdejo's win climbed to the main event after the "Negative, Positive, Negative" Covid-19 testing of WBO junior lightweight champion Jamel Herring caused the cancellation of Herring's title defense against Jonathan Oquendo, but the spectacular performance by Verdejo in front of a national audience will make fans want to see more of the former Puerto Rican Olympian in the future.
The right, right, left combination that left Madera prone in a corner near the end of the first round showed why so many tabbed Verdejo as a future superstar when he turned pro in 2013.
Verdejo has been working with a new trainer this year with Ismael Salas and Salas has a track record of working well with reclamation projects in recent years, so even if this victory still leaves Verdejo with plenty to prove, training with Salas and the knockout gives hope for Verdejo.
Although it seemed a bit silly for Verdejo to call out Vasily Lomachenko after this win (Verdejo still has never beaten a top ten lightweight), it does make him an interesting fighter to watch in the division and should he defeat a tougher opponent in his next fight, I would not be surprised to see him in the mix for one of the three vacant lightweight titles that could be vacated by the Lomachenko-Teofimo Lopez winner (Lomachenko has talked of returning to junior lightweight and Lopez is likely to move up to junior welterweight).
Ramon Malpica and I each added one point for the Verdejo win to move the total to 69-61 in the boxing challenge.
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