By Miguel Rivera

World Boxing Council (WBC) super featherweight champion Miguel 'Alacran' Berchelt (32-1, 28 KOs) will likely not fight again for the remainder of 2017, because he was diagnosed with an injury to his right hand.

The injury took place during the sixth round of his recent defense against Japan's Takashi Miura on July 15 in California.

Berhcelt's co-promoter Mario Abraham revealed that the boxer had his hand put in a cast and after six weeks he can begin the rehabilitation, hoping to return in December or look to make his second defense in January.

"They did the studies and they resulted in a fracture in the right thumb of the right hand, a light fracture that will not require surgery. The hand will have a cast for six weeks and then the rehabilitation will start. It was an injury that came during the sixth round of the fight against Miura," explained Abraham to ESPN Deportes.

"About whether or not he will return in 2017 will depend a lot on the rehabilitation, but there is no hurry, obviously we will look for a date in December, but if not, January or February will be fine for him to return to the ring. The good thing is that he is calm because he knows that he will not require surgery."

Berchelt started off the year with an upset victory after he shocked Francisco Vargas with a stoppage win, on HBO, to capture the WBC title. A mandatory defense was then ordered by the WBC against Miura, who was the former champion. And when the met earlier this month in Los Angeles, in another HBO televised fight, Berchelt dropped Miura early and then dominated him over the twelve round distance for a unanimous decision.

He would like to make his second world title defense in Mexico, but that's going to depend on the opponent and television network.