Jamel Herring’s July 2 WBO junior lightweight title defense against Jonathan Oquendo has been postponed after Herring announced that he tested positive for COVID-19 last week.
The Herring-Oquendo bout was scheduled to headline next Thursday’s Top Rank card on ESPN. Top Rank vice president Carl Moretti says an attempt is being made to move a junior welterweight battle between Jose Pedraza (26-3, 13 KOs) and Mikkel LesPierre (22-1-1, 10 KOs) into that slot on July 2.
Top Rank hopes to reschedule the Herring-Oquendo fight for July 14 if Herring is cleared by that point.
“I’m OK, I feel like my normal self again,” Herring told ESPN’s Steve Kim on Tuesday. “I feel good. After I got past the whole fever, I felt good. I didn’t even know I had it ’til I came down with the fever [on Friday].”
Herring said he had been having muscle aches and fatigue, but thought it was due to being in the final stages of camp, preparing for the fight. He was tested Saturday, got the results a day later and has been quarantining in Omaha, Nebraska.
“I’m just in my room right now, laying down and relaxing,” said Herring, who was advised to wait 72 hours before resuming his normal activities. “The doctor said since I came in after I already had the fever, that I was already at the last stages of the virus. I literally broke the fever Saturday night; it only last two days for me, Friday night, and Saturday night. By the time I got the test results by Sunday morning, I was already done with the fever stages.”
The Pedraza-LesPierre fight was originally scheduled as the ESPN main event on June 18 before LesPierre’s manager tested positive for COVID-19 leading up to the fight. New Top Rank guidelines now restrict fighters from other promotion companies from bringing their manager to a bout in the bubble.
Herring-Oquendo is the fourth Top Rank fight to be postponed due to a positive coronavirus test since boxing returned earlier this month.