Raymond Muratalla injured, pulled from Saturday ESPN co-feature

Saturday’s boxing action took a hit today when Top Rank announced that lightweight prospect Raymond Muratalla, slated to co-headline Saturday’s Emanuel Navarrete vs Oscar Valdez show against undefeated Diego Torres, is out due to injury. Lindolfo Delgado vs Jair Valtierra, formerly on the prelims, now sits between the main event and Richard Torrez Jr’s execution of Willie Jake Jr.

While it sucks to lose Muratalla, especially since his fight with Torres looked likely to produce some real action, it’s nice to see Delgado (17-0, 13 KO) get a push. the 2016 Olympian’s shootout with Omar Aguilar won Bad Left Hook’s coveted Fight of the Year of the Week of the Year for 2022, but Top Rank hasn’t seemed keen to capitalize on that momentum. Delgago cruised past faded journeyman Clarence Booth in February and looks to have an even easier task against Valtierra (16-2, 8 KO), a longtime lightweight who failed to take a round from Muratalla two fights back.

Hopefully this will be lead to a meaningful fight later this year.

The ESPN+ prelims still feature the latest from Emiliano Vargas, aka The Good Fernando Vargas Spawn, and 6’9” Antonio Mireles battling 400-lb Dajuan Calloway in the sort of Waluigi vs Wario matchup we’ve been craving since Stefan Struve vs Roy Nelson.