By Keith Idec

Felix Verdejo’s surgically repaired right hand feels fine going into his fight Friday night against Brazil’s Josenilson Dos Santos.

That was hardly the case six months ago, when he was getting ready for his HBO debut. The popular Puerto Rican lightweight’s hand was so tender heading toward his eventual impressive unanimous-decision defeat of Ivan Najera, the 2012 Olympian’s handlers thought they’d have to pull Verdejo out of that 10-rounder in The Theater at Madison Square Garden.

“Honestly, there was a lot of pain,” Carl Moretti, Top Rank’s vice president of boxing operations, said on a recent conference call. “He would’ve killed us if we would’ve pulled him from the fight. But I’ve seen a lot of other fighters pull out with a lot less than he had going into that fight. But I think because it was the Garden and Puerto Rican Day [Parade] weekend, there was no way he wasn’t going through with the fight.”

The 22-year-old Verdejo downplayed the severe pain in which he fought against San Antonio’s Najera (16-2, 8 KOs), who was undefeated before he fought Verdejo (18-0, 13 KOs).

“There was a little bit of pain,” said Verdejo, who had surgery a few weeks after defeating Najera. “I just concentrated and focused on the fight. I forgot about the pain. That’s what I did. When the fight was over, I started feeling the pain again. But during the fight, I just remained focused and calm during the fight.”

TruTv will televise Verdejo versus Dos Santos (27-3, 17 KOs) as the main event of a doubleheader Friday from Roberto Clemente Coliseum in San Juan, Puerto Rico (10 p.m. ET/PT). The show will begin with a 12-round fight that’ll send Las Vegas’ Nonito Donaire (35-3, 23 KOs) against Mexico’s Cesar Juarez (17-3, 13 KOs) for the vacant WBO super bantamweight title.

Keith Idec covers boxing for The Record and Herald News, of Woodland Park, N.J., and BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.