Junior welterweight contender Antonio Orozco, who was closing in on a shot at unified world champion Terence Crawford, was getting ready to fight Fidel Maldonado Jr. on Dec. 16.
Orozco was excited that the fight would be televised on HBO Latino and that a win would have likely meant a world title elimination bout against Amir Imam next, if not the outright shot at Crawford.
But two days before the fight, Orozco was struggling to make the 140-pound limit. He was dehydrated, lethargic and not feeling well. Ultimately, he passed out. He landed in the hospital, the fight was canceled and Orozco's career had never been at a lower point.
"I played with my health a little bit and ended up in the hospital with severe dehydration and it was not a pretty picture," Orozco told ESPN this week.
Three months later, Orozco said he is in a much better place, both physically and mentally, as he prepares for an important fight against fellow undefeated fighter KeAndre Gibson, who he will face Saturday night at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.
The scheduled 10-round bout headlines the second edition of the new Golden Boy Boxing on ESPN series and will air live on ESPN Deportes and stream on ESPN3 beginning at 9 p.m. ET. The card will also air on a slight tape delay on ESPN2 beginning at 11 p.m. ET.
Junior welterweight Mercito "No Mercy" Gesta (29-1-2, 16 KOs) will end an 18-month layoff when he faces Gilberto Gonzalez (26-3, 22 KOs), 29, of Mexico, in the scheduled 10-round co-feature. Gesta, 29, a native of the Philippines fighting out of San Diego, is 3-0-1 in his past four fights since dropping a unanimous decision challenging then-lightweight world titleholder Miguel Vazquez in December 2012. Gonzalez enters the fight having won eight bouts in a row.
Orozco (25-0, 16 KOs), 29, of San Diego, knows that an impressive victory against Gibson (16-0-1, 7 KOs), 27, of St. Louis, will reignite his career.
Not only did the cancellation of the December fight hurt his reputation, but it also cost him a spot in a WBC title eliminator as he was passed over by the organization, which awarded the mandatory position to Imam.
"I learned there are consequences for everything," Orozco said. "I'm not going to object or oppose anything. The WBC has their rules. This was a price I had to pay. Let's move forward."
Orozco was apologetic and humbled by what happened.
"It was unprofessional," Orozco said. "I waited too long to cut the weight. I've done it before and thought I was gonna be good. But it was an irresponsible act. With the situation we learned our lesson."
Golden Boy Promotions president Eric Gomez said he likes what he has heard from Orozco in the lead up to the fight, but he'll have to prove his words with his deeds.
"He's saying all the right things and taking the proper action. Now it's the real test," Gomez said. "The truth maker is in the ring. We'll know the truth on Saturday."
Orozco said he brought in a nutritionist to work with him in training to make sure he cut weight the right way for the fight with Gibson.
"It's been working out great," he said. "Everything has been moving along. This was a missing component to the training camp. Lesson learned. I know what happened before was a disappointment for my entire team. I gave myself a bad reputation. For me, my manager (Frank Espinoza) and for Golden Boy Promotions the embarrassment was amazing. It was very shameful and my unprofessional act. But I've closed that chapter and I'm looking forward to Saturday night. I had a hiccup but now I am back."
Golden Boy, though not happy with what happened in December, stuck by Orozco and has matched him tough against Gibson.
"It was upsetting that he wasn't able to fight but what happened was an accident and we understand accidents happen," Gomez said. "More than anything we were concerned about his health. We wanted to make sure he was OK and wanted to know if he could still fight at 140 pounds or had to move up to 147. After talking to him and going through what happened exactly he cleared up a lot of doubts.
"Taking it upon himself to get a nutritionist was good to hear. It was a learning process for him but it was still disappointing. When it's one of your top guys, and he is one of our top guys, and when you're a step away from a world title fight you can't have any slip ups. This is a big fight for him. He has a lot of questions for himself he wants answered. He's talking like he learned his lesson, but the ultimate test is inside the ring."
Orozco hopes to continue building toward a title fight that looked like it would surely come his way after a 2015 in which he notched a pair of quality victories -- 10-round decision wins against Emmanuel Taylor and former world titleholder Humberto Soto. But Orozco took a bit of a step back with a forgettable 2016, and not just because of the weight snafu.
He faced two lesser opponents and while he drilled long-faded former lightweight titlist Miguel Acosta in the first round, he struggled to a 10-round decision win against journeyman Abner Lopez and suffered cuts from head butts.
"I did win at least but it was just a bad year for me," Orozco said. "I did win (against Lopez) but not in the fashion I would have wanted. I'm not gonna make excuses. We're looking for the win. Better to win ugly but don't lose pretty. We'll take the win but 2016 was a helluva year, but not in a good way. Now, 2017 is going to be a helluva year, but in a good way."
Gibson, more of a boxer than puncher, poses what many believe will be a tough test for Orozco. He is unbeaten and harbors world title dreams of his own.
"My goal is [to win] a WBC world championship title, but right now my focus is on defeating Antonio Orozco," Gibson said. "Obviously, the hope is to knock him out in the first round and get it done early, but I'm fully prepared to go to war and put on a good fight.
"I've been studying Orozco for a while now because I knew he was one of the top guys in my division. I feel like I'm more prepared for him than he is for me. He hasn't really fought slick, quick boxing guys like me, so I feel like I'm more prepared to fight a guy with his style than he is to fight a guy with my style."
Orozco said he expects a tough fight after having seen Gibson previously.
"We've shared a couple of cards so I've seen glimpses of him fighting," Orozco said. "He's a great counterpuncher, a good boxer, has good foot movement. I'm gonna have to be aggressive and set the pace for the fight. I cannot take anything away from Gibson. It's a dangerous fight I've been waiting for. I want to demonstrate I am here and can give anyone a fight."