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Super middleweight contender Adonis Stevenson injured his hand while sparring, and is now out of this week's season finale edition of ESPN Friday Night Fights. Stevenson was set to face Don George in Oklahoma in an IBF eliminator bout, but instead, Dionisio Miranda will step in on short notice and face George.
Stevenson's promoter Yvon Michel was disappointed by the news.
"Adonis Stevenson injured his left hand in sparring last Friday. The next day he went to see a doctor who diagnosed a severe bruise and major swelling. Adonis was not able to close his hand and make a fist.
"Treatments were done in hopes of improvement but there was not enough progress and under the doctor's advice it was decided to pull Adonis out of his fight."
Michel went on to wish George luck against Miranda.
Leon Margules of Warriors Boxing spoke on behalf of George's team."Donovan is obviously disappointed by this, but we all know these things happen in boxing. We wish Adonis Stevenson a speedy recovery.
"But what we still have in this event is a compelling junior middleweight fight between two top-tier guys with reputations for pulling off upsets and we've got Donovan George against a Columbian slugger with a difficult style to figure out. So, as sad as we all are about what happened, we still have a good challenge in front of us this Friday and we'll be ready."
Stevenson vs George was originally set for Showtime, as the co-feature bout for the Cloud vs Pascal main event, but when that fight was canceled, this one was, too. Promoters worked quickly and moved the fight to Oklahoma and ESPN, but now that's off, as well.
Miranda (21-7-2, 18 KO) is a Colombian fighter with mostly what I call "the Colombian record," but he has had some notable success outside of his home country, too, beating Sebastien Demers in Canada and Lajuan Simon in the States. He's got a weak chin, having been knocked out six times including his last fight, where he was kayoed in 2:37 by Avantdil Khurtsidze, but for a very short notice opponent, they did what they could here.
The co-feature does still have junior middleweight contender Carlos Molina in action against Damian Frias.