Saturday night on America’s biggest sports network, Oscar Valdez defends his WBO featherweight title for the fourth time against one of the division’s best in the United Kingdom’s Scott Quigg. This is an excellent main event to a major Top Rank on ESPN broadcast.
Two time Mexican Olympian Oscar Valdez (23-0, 19 KOs) was a major prospect when he turned pro in late 2011. Valdez never won a medal, but his 2012 run in London run ended one fight short of at least a bronze when he lost a decision to a home fighter despite some strong work. Top Rank signed him up before he turned pro and has guided his career from fight number one. Oscar Valdez is as much a home grown fighter for Top Rank as any other combatant is in the sport for any other promotional body.
Valdez did the normal prospect slow build, but Top Rank showed their confidence by moving him a little faster than is their usual habit. In his 16th fight, the former Mexican Olympian was matched quite tough against then recent former title challenger Chris Avalos. Main eventing Top Rank’s now defunct TruTV series, Oscar Valdez had a coming out party. He dominated in his step up and finished Avalos in five rounds. Two fights later Valdez met a former world title holder in Evgeny Gradovich, blasting him out a round earlier even in four.
That win set the future titleholder up for his shot and he got it, though the fight itself was underwhelming. Valdez was matched with unbeaten, but unknown and unworthy Argentinian Matias Rueda for the vacant WBO belt, dismissing him predictably in two rounds. His first defense was another knockout win over an uninspiring opponent, but then things got interesting.
Neither Miguel Marriaga or Genesis Servania were considered top featherweights when they met Valdez in his most recent two defenses, but both ended up giving him interesting tests. This is partly because they are both probably underrated fighters, but it is also without question partly because Oscar Valdez has seemed to regress a bit as a professional boxer. In both of these fights he tossed out his more measured style for an all out brawling approach. It made for exciting fights, but it also allowed to lesser opponents to be competitive. Servania even dropped him pretty hard in his most recent defense last September.
I don’t know if the Mexican titleholder will be able to get away with this against Scott Quigg (34-1-2, 25 KOs). The highly durable and strong Englishman will be looking for what some will call a world title in his second weight class come Saturday night, but I don’t buy that hype. Quigg had his first breakthrough in 2011, a year before Valdez would fight in the Olympics for a second time, when he won the British super bantamweight title over Jason Booth by stoppage. A few fights later he would become the WBA’s “regular” champion at the weight, but Guillermo Rigondeaux had their real world title all the while.
Scott Quigg’s paper title reign was quite successful at least. It started with a draw against Yoandris Salinas that Quigg should have won which was a shame, but it was all uphill from there. In his next five paper defenses, the secondary titleholder stopped four of his opponents inside three rounds. Sure, these weren’t against men at the absolute top of the division, but it was a real good run that set up Scott Quigg’s biggest fight to date against legitimate titleholder Carl Frampton.
In terms of interest and the sheer size of the event, Frampton v Quigg was one of biggest fights south of featherweight in some time. Unfortunately, the fight itself did not deliver. Both men seemed fazed by the spotlight. Saturday night’s title challenger was particularly impacted. Though neither man did much damage, at least Carl Frampton was getting a little bit done to comfortably take rounds. When Scott Quigg finally woke up late, he did begin dominating. It was just too little, too late in terms of scoring.
Since suffering his only defeat, the English contender has moved to featherweight. He is 3-0 at 126 pounds, but he has also been fighting down a level as he adjusts to the weight. Thankfully, he and Oscar Valdez are stepping up big Saturday night against one another.
This is a great matchup precisely because of how the two men’s recent performances cloud the fight. Quigg is a tough, durable, and skilled fighter, but he also fights a sort of plodding style that can be outboxed. Valdez has shown the sort of boxing ability that would seem necessary to do the job, but he has stopped using it in recent fights in favor of brawling. Scott Quigg in theory wants him to brawl. Then again, the last time he faced lights as bright as the ones he will see Saturday, Scott Quigg played eight or so rounds as a deer in headlights.
I don’t think Quigg will freeze up again, nor do I think Valdez will stay completely disciplined. There is real potential for fireworks here in a fight that either man really could win. It is kind of crazy how many ways I can envision this fight going, actually. I can see Quigg wearing a wild Valdez out. I can see Valdez and his team putting together and executing the right gameplan to win wide. I could also see a wild war, or a tentative fight that never really gets going. Fights usually have multiple ways they could conceivably play out, but this one seems to have limitless possibilities. It sure has me intrigued.
The co-main event pits a pair of unbeaten Top Rank junior lightweights against one another in Andy Vences (20-0, 12 KOs) and Erick De Leon (17-0, 10 KOs). The promotional giant doesn’t seem too enthralled with either of these guys, so the hope here is likely that one of them takes a big step up and uses the major ESPN platform to dominate.
There is likely some concern that the college basketball conference tournament games on before on ESPN will run over too. In fact, I’d almost guarantee it. While the ESPN broadcast is set to air at 10:30 PM Eastern, I’d wager that it will be later than that. I almost wonder if the relatively weak co-main event won’t be joined in progress instead of being waited for. It would make sense.
Most eyes live will likely be on Showtime as Mikey Garcia strives for his fourth world title. For those electing to watch ESPN live, however, I recommend actually using the WatchESPN.com platform for this one to prevent the basketball games from interfering. If you want to watch the full card start to finish, that broadcast will actually begin at 7:35 PM Eastern and feature every fight on the bill. Notable fighters on the deep undercard include recent heavyweight title challenger Andy Ruiz Jr, Mike Reed, Alex Saucedo, and 2012 Olympic silver medalist Esquiva Falcao.
