Canelo vs Angulo: Omar Figueroa out of PPV undercard with hand injury

Lightweight contender and prospect Omar Figueroa is not going to fight as scheduled next weekend, when he was set to face Canelo Alvarez's older brother Ricardo in a 12-round fight for the WBC title on the Canelo-Angulo Showtime PPV undercard.

Reports came out of Texas late last night and into this morning that Figueroa (22-0-1, 17 KO) had reinjured his hand in training camp, and that his father had confirmed to KRGV Sports that the fight would be postponed. Steve Kim of MaxBoxing tweeted confirmation today from trainer Joel Diaz that Figueroa had an injury, and the fight was off.

The source I spoke to said nothing was 100% official as of yet, but that appears at this point to be a formality. It's a loss for the pay-per-view card, because Figueroa has become a must-see action fighter, and his fight was another good reason to spend the money to tune in, if the main event wasn't quite enough for the viewer to kick off what is a very busy pay-per-view season, with major bouts on April 12 (Pacquiao-Bradley II), May 3 (Mayweather-Maidana), and June 7 (Cotto-Martinez) after this event.

The worse news with the hand injury is that it's now a recurring thing, as Figueroa suffered pretty extensive hand injuries in last year's clubbing defeat of Nihito Arakawa, which was Figueroa's last fight in July. Hand injuries can sap fighters of their power and derail careers. It's certainly far too early to say that we're headed in that direction with Figueroa, but he's going to have to be careful, and "careful" isn't really part of his game.

The fight will be replaced on PPV by the matchup between Jorge Linares and Nihito Arakawa, which should at least be entertaining.