All fighters are brave. Jamel Herring might be taking it step further.
Herring, the junior lightweight titleholder and former U.S. Marine, tested positive for COVID-19 on June 21, which resulted in the postponement of his scheduled July 2 title defense against Jonathan Oquendo (31-6, 19 KOs) of Puerto Rico inside the MGM Bubble in Las Vegas.
The fight will take place only three weeks later, on Tuesday (July 14), even though members of his team suggested he wait or fight in a 10-round non-title bout.
“I am back, healthy and 100 percent ready to defend my world title,” he told ESPN, which will television the fight. “Oquendo is a tough opponent who realizes this is his last chance to win a world title.
“He’s coming for what I have, and I’m not going to cut any corners. I will return home to celebrate with my family and my belt.”
Herring said he felt achy but wasn’t concerned until he developed a fever on June 19. He was tested the following day and received the results the day after that, at which point he went into quarantine.
He was interviewed by ESPN on June 23.
“I’m OK, I feel like my normal self again,” Herring said at that time. “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.”
He went on: “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 … Sunday morning, I was already done with the fever stages.”
Herring (21-2, 10 KOs) said that a follow-up test came back negative and that he’s now symptom free. And his strength and conditioning coach said he has seen no fall off in Herring’s training since he returned to the gym.
Still, there is no telling how having had the virus will affect him – if at all.
“We have no idea how athletes recover from COVID,” Paulina Endara, Herring’s nutritionist, told ESPN. “This is still so new. But we’ve done everything we can to make sure Jamel is healthy and ready to fight.”
Herring isn’t the only fighter on the card who has had to deal with COVID-19.
Mikaela Mayer (12-0, 5KOs) also tested positive and was pulled from Top Rank’s June 9 card as a result. However, it was later determined that it was a false positive.
The 2016 U.S. Olympian from Los Angeles will face Helen Joseph (17-4-2, 10 KOs) of Nigeria in a 10-round junior lightweight co-feature.
Other bouts on the card: Clay Collard vs. Lorawnt T Nelson, six rounds, middleweights; Luis Melendez vs. Edward Vazquez, eight round, featherweights; Ruben Cervera vs. Clay Burns, six rounds, lightweights; and William Villa vs. Eduardo Sanchez, four rounds, junior lightweights.