WBA and WBC women’s strawweight champion Seniesa Estrada had successful surgery on her right hand, the boxer announced in a social media post on Tuesday.
“Surgery was a success! Be back soon with two hands,” Estrada wrote.
Estrada believes she aggravated a lingering ligament issue on her right index finger during the second round of her July title defense against Leonela Yudica. Therapy to rehabilitate the injury wouldn’t help, Estrada said, because it is an injury she had been dealing with for a long time prior to the fight. She had previously aggravated the injury in sparring, which left her unable to close her fist fully after her unanimous-decision win over Yudica.
“It’s been a thing for a while,” Estrada told ESPN in August. “This last fight, second round, I forgot what I hit her with, an overhand right or a right hand and, ‘Bam,’ pain shot through my fingers and my hand.”
Estrada said meetings with a hand specialist after her win over Yudica showed ligament damage, a fracture and a cyst on her knuckle that would have to be “carved down,” because that’s the source of the pain.
The 31-year-old Estrada, 25-0, 9 KOs, is ESPN’s No. 1 ranked boxer at strawweight and No. 5 on ESPN’s pound-for-pound list.
ESPN’s Michael Rothstein contributed to this report.