Massively overweight Yap cancels Top Rank main event

As Top Rank Boxing has revived the sport in the United States with a series of fights in their Vegas “bubble,” there have been plenty of controversies involving positive Covid-19 test postponing or canceling fights. Well, we can now add a massive “weight miss” that has canceled the Thursday night proposed main event at the MGM Grand.

At Wednesday’s weigh-in for the scheduled 10-round Featherweight battle between Miguel Marriaga and Mark John Yap, Yap blew past the 128 lb. “catchweight” limit that had been agreed to, by weighing 136.8 lb., nearly 9 lb. (or two weight classes) over the limit:

BREAKING: Being told that the Marriaga-Yap main event has been cancelled due to Yap miserably missing weight. Felix Verdejo vs. Will Madera new main event. #MarriagaYap #VerdejoMadera https://t.co/7HaChrsKhF

— Jake Donovan (@JakeNDaBox) July 15, 2020

The 31-year old Filipino veteran with a 30 – 15 record obviously made little attempt to have himself in shape for the battle with Marriaga. Yep had last fought in November in Las Vegas losing a six round featherweight contest.

As for the Colombian Marriaga, the 33-year old, who is 29-3, is now left without an opponent. This comes on the heels of his shot at unbeaten WBO Featherweight Champ, Shakur Stevenson, being canceled just two days before it was to have happened in March by Covid 19.

Further, it’s unclear as to when Top Rank will try to put a new fight together for him in the short-term?

The promotion and the Nevada athletic Commission have had stringent guidelines in place for testing for the Coronavirus and it has postponed previous bouts involving WBO 130 lb. champ, Jamel Herring (twice) unbeaten women’s contender, Mikaela Mayer, who was the main event fight on Tuesday night in the Vegas “bubble” and also the Jose Pedraza – Mikkel lespierre fight. That was due to LesPierre’s cornerman testing positive.

Yap missing weight this significantly takes us back to last November and another Top Rank featured fight that was called off due to a massive weight miss. That’s when Junior Lightweight, Andres Gutierrez, was to have fought former Featherweight World Champ, Oscar Valdez, in early December.

But, when Gutierrez stepped on the scale at 141 lb. or 11 more than the 130 lb Junior Lightweight limit, we wrote at the time that perhaps Gutierrez enjoyed too much Thanksgiving turkey and sides leading up to the bout.

Back to Thursday night, Top Rank moved quickly to elevate the Felix Verdejo – Will Madera 10-round Lightweight fight, as their new main event from the MGM Grand:

BREAKING NEWS: Main event opportunity now knocks for @DiamanteVerdejo. ???#VerdejoMadera | TOMORROW | ESPN pic.twitter.com/wkluCcRuku

— Top Rank Boxing (@trboxing) July 15, 2020

The 27 year old Puerto Rican, Verdejo is 26-1 and gets the spotlight, now, against the unbeaten, 15-0-3, Madera, who’s from New York Thursday on ESPN.