Ouch.
Felix Diaz was scheduled to compete this week as he looked to rebound from losing to one of the top pound-for-pound boxers today in Terence Crawford. Unfortunately, the former Olympic Gold medalist’s bout won’t be pushing through, and it is due to a very unusual — and painful — training injury.
“He forgot his cup one day so he sparred without it and got nailed in the balls. It caused a real injury. He’s got badly bruised testicles,” his promoter Lou DiBella told ESPN (HT: Bad Left Hook). “He took a major shot to the balls without a cup and it caused a lot of swelling.
“We were trying to get Felix a fight before the end of the year. He’s been eager to fight. It’s a cringe-worthy injury but sometimes life’s a pain in the balls. He’ll be back when his balls are better, hopefully in January.”
Let this incident be the perfect reminder to always train with proper protective gear. Be sure you have your mouthpiece and groin guard, as things can get nuts in sparring, and you may just end up hitting the sack.