Why Felix Verdejo isn't yet the star he should be

Felix Verdejo remains one of the finest boxers in the world without a major championship belt around his weight.

A member of the 2012 Puerto Rican Olympic team, Verdejo is about to blossom into one of the sport’s biggest stars this year.

Of course, Saturday won’t be the night because, despite William Silva’s record, he’s not much opposition. Silva is unbeaten, but his record is a mirage. He hasn’t faced much opposition and a quick glance at his bouts on YouTube show that this should be an easy night for Verdejo.

It’s been a tough start to the year for HBO, which on Saturday broadcasts Verdejo-Silva in the opener of a doubleheader featuring Terence Crawford against Hank Lundy in the main event of a card at The Theater at Madison Square Garden.

In HBO’s first show of the year on Jan. 30 in Montreal, the B-side earned just one of the scored rounds from the judges. In the opener that night, Dmitry Mikhaylenko won 10, 10 and nine rounds on the cards of the three judges in his 10-rounder with Karim Mayfield.

It was an awful, ugly fight that had no business on premium cable television.

But it was worse in the main event. Light heavyweight champion Sergey Kovalev destroyed Jean Pascal, stopping him after seven one-sided rounds. Kovalev won all seven rounds on all three judges’ cards before Pascal trainer Freddie Roach mercifully ended it.

On this night, the six judges that worked the top two fights combined to turn in 51 scorecards. The A-side won 50 of those 51 rounds.

It won’t be much different in New York on Saturday. Crawford is about a 25-1 favorite, while Verdejo is a 50-1 favorite.

It’s not going to showcase either man at his best.

That Verdejo is going to be a star is a foregone conclusion; the only issue is when, and it will only happen when he finally begins to face elite competition.

Verdejo is a lightweight who is ranked second by the WBA, third by the WBO, seventh by the IBF and 12th by the WBC. But Verdejo’s timeline to fight for a title was pushed back by hand surgery he underwent in June to remove bone spurs from his left hand.

Top Rank president Todd duBoef said Verdejo would have fought five or six times in 2015 instead of twice were it not for the surgery.

“Those development rounds he would have gotten are very important,” duBoef said. “It’s those fights where he has to get up off the stool after the sixth, after the seventh, after the eighth. It’s what we did with [Miguel] Cotto when he was coming up. He got those kinds of fights where he was pushed so he knew what it was like.

“We did the same thing with Floyd [Mayweather] and Oscar [De La Hoya] when they were coming up. We gave them the more experienced guys to get them prepared for the top guys.”

Assuming Verdejo wins on Saturday, and at 50-1, it’s a pretty good assumption, he’ll fight again in Orlando, Fla., in April and then at Madison Square Garden in June.

Top Rank will assess his progress at that point and see where he stands. Clearly, though, he’s on the verge of stardom, but it’s difficult to become a star beating up on B-leaguers.

But duBoef has little doubt that Top Rank has another major star on its hands.

“He’s got the marketability and he’s got the ability,” duBoef said. “He’s got a lot of charisma and people love to see him fight. He is a big draw already at home and he’s going to get bigger.

“We’re not at all worried and he’s not behind schedule at all. If it weren’t for the hand, he’d be there now. The surgery created a little detour, but we’re ready to get him going again.”