Frank Espinoza called Jessie Magdaleno at about 10 o’clock the strange night of March 12.

Magdaleno had just returned to his Manhattan hotel room from a workout when his manager relayed the bad news. About 14 hours before he was supposed to step on the New York State Athletic Commission’s scale, Magdaleno already was half a pound beneath the contract maximum of 126 pounds for his fight against Sakaria Lukas.

Unfortunately, Espinoza explained that all the time and energy Magdaleno expended over the previous two months was wasted. The entire March 14 card, which Shakur Stevenson and Miguel Marriaga were set to headline at Madison Square Garden’s Hulu Theater, had been canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even when his promoters at Top Rank Inc. announced earlier that day that the show would take place without fans in attendance, Magdaleno never thought that he wouldn’t fight two nights later.

“It was unreal,” Magdaleno told BoxingScene.com. “I didn’t expect that. Even when [a reporter] told me it could happen, I was like, ‘No, the show is still gonna go on.’ It didn’t hit me until I started seeing all the other sports stopping and canceling. Then I was like, ‘Oh, sh-t! This is real. This is really happening.’ Then I got the phone call from Frank. He was like, ‘Hey, I got really bad news.’ I was like, ‘What’s going on, Frank?’ He said, ‘The fight’s canceled. Or it’s postponed until further notice.’

“I was like, ‘Well, what do we do now?’ He goes, ‘You’ve gotta get on a flight home because things are getting really crazy in New York.’ I got back on the plane the next morning, came back home [to Las Vegas] and that’s when everything just hit me. I was like, ‘Dang! No pay, no fight.’ It just all hit me. I was like, ‘Man, this is crazy.’ ”

The cancelation of a 12-round fight for the WBC silver featherweight title cost Magdaleno a six-figure purse and another opportunity to fight on ESPN. Unlike some boxers, the former WBO junior featherweight champion was prepared financially for something out of the ordinary.

“It’s tough,” Magdaleno said. “You don’t expect that to happen. You know, there’s some fighters out there that don’t save. There’s some fighters out there that don’t invest. There’s some fighters that blow their money on dumb stuff. But thank God I was able to save some money. I invested my money in a couple of things, and I had emergency money, just in case anything ever happens.

“You know, if I get sick, my wife gets sick, or something happens in the family. I’ve always put aside some money to take care of myself, whatever the case is. So, it sucks that I didn’t get paid. But thankfully, I made the right choices and was able to take some money that I had saved for myself.”

The 28-year-old Magdaleno (27-1, 18 KOs) will get paid Thursday night for his 10-round junior lightweight fight against Dominican veteran Yenifel Vicente (36-4-2, 28 KOs, 1 NC). ESPN will televise their bout, which will be contested at a catch weight of 128 pounds, as the main event of a four-fight card from MGM Grand Conference Center in Las Vegas (8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT).

Magdaleno would’ve welcomed a rescheduled fight versus Lukas (23-0, 16 KOs), but pandemic-related travel restrictions prevented Lukas from flying to the United States. In Vicente, Magdaleno will encounter a hard-hitting, hungry opponent who wants to redeem himself 10 months after a one-sided, 10-round, unanimous-decision loss to Tramaine Williams (19-0, 6 KOs).

The 33-year-old Vicente is durable and can punch, but he has officially moved up two weight classes to meet Magdaleno, who is listed as a 10-1 favorite.

“He’s a little rugged fighter, very tough,” Magdaleno said. “He can take a punch. I’ve seen that he’s never been knocked down, he’s never been put out. He loads up on that big right hand all the time. There’s no jab. There’s no movement. His defense, it’s all right. I think he’s just gonna see a bigger, stronger, faster, more powerful guy than he’s seen in his career. I think once he feels my power and he sees my movement, my defense and everything, I think it’s gonna be a tough night for him.”

Magdaleno’s goal is to become the first opponent in Vicente’s 13-year, 43-fight career to knock him out. The left-handed Magdaleno dropped Rafael Rivera in the ninth round of his last fight, which Magdaleno won by technical decision when cuts on the bridge of his nose and around his right eye prevented him from continuing in that same round.

“You know, Rivera had never been put down,” Magdaleno said. “He had never been staggered. He fought a tough JoJo Diaz, a tough Leo Santa Cruz, and they couldn’t hurt him the way I hurt him. You know, I think I made a statement in that fight, and I think I can do it again in this fight. I could blow him out and show him that I’m the bigger, stronger guy and possibly knock him out.”

Magdaleno must overcome Vicente to remain the WBC’s number one challenger for Gary Russell Jr.’s featherweight title. Magdaleno also is the WBO’s fourth-ranked contender for Stevenson’s 126-pound crown.

The Las Vegas native has defeated Rico Ramos (30-6, 14 KOs) and Rivera (27-4-2, 18 KOs, 1 NC) in his two featherweight fights since losing his WBO 122-pound championship to Isaac Dogboe (20-2, 14 KOs) by 11th-round knockout two years ago in Philadelphia.

“I’m just as hungry as I was when I fought [Nonito] Donaire at 122 pounds, if not hungrier,” Magdaleno said. “I just wanna do the best I can. I know I can be a world champion again at this weight class. There’s no doubt in my mind I can do it. I’m more focused. I’m more dedicated to my craft than I’ve ever been. My coach [Jorge Capetillo] and Frank always tell me that the more dedicated I am, the more dangerous that I am. I’ve proven that. I’ve proven it in my last two fights. I feel great again, and I just think I’m more than ready to be world champion again.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.