The rain couldn’t cool down the heat in the ring in California on Saturday night. Though it was a little marred by Quigg’s failure to make weight, he and Oscar Valdez put on an outstanding fight in the rain at the Stubhub Center. After twelve extremely hard fought down, the defending titleholder had his hand raised in the end.
Oscar Valdez (24-0, 19 KOs) opened up the fight with a pretty great first round over his overweight opponent Scott Quigg (34-2-2, 25 KOs). The Mexican two time Olympian moved brilliantly around the ring while moving his left hand upstairs and down to great effect. While the Englishman couldn’t win the title after missing weight, you wouldn’t know it given the intensity he came out with in round two. It didn’t matter, however, as he mostly just continued to walk into huge left hooks, especially to the body in the proper Mexican tradition. I thought Valdez won the third round too, but it was the first close one. Scott Quigg definitely got his right hand going behind his pressure in the third.
That right hand was working even better early in the fourth. His bullying tactics started to work in spurts here for the first time, though he did eat plenty in return still. This was shaping up to be the expected excellent action fight through its first third. I had Valdez up 3-1. The success of the fourth round only intensified in the fifth for Scott Quigg. He was still eating body shots, but the English fighter’s offense was really going well. He visibly shook the Mexican titleholder with a shot along the ropes towards the end of the round. We’d later learn Oscar Valdez suffered a jaw injury on that shot. He still came out bleeding from the mouth in the sixth, however, and had himself a good rebound round anyway. At least, he did in terms of scoring with his rapid, straight shots. I was beginning to wonder here if he could hold off the unfairly bigger man over the course of a full twelve round fight.
Scott Quigg didn’t apply the same pressure in the seventh, however. Counter intuitively, he won it anyway on his nice work with Valdez against the ropes. Still, despite winning the round, I thought maybe he missed an opportunity by not going harder to test the titleholder’s jaw and conditioning. He had a good eighth round too. It was competitive, but I thought Quigg edged yet another frame. The ninth was one of the most action packed rounds in an action packed fight. After a rough start to it for the defending titleholder for about a minute of action, Valdez came to life again with big shots to carry the rest of the exciting round.
A massive left hook to the body early froze Scott Quigg in the tenth. A follow up flurry ripped him upstairs and seemed to potentially break his nose. This fight was vicious at this point. There was a narrative going into this fight that Quigg’s window for success was in the midrounds as Valdez fades then before rallying back late and it was playing out to the tee in the ring. Oscar Valdez was ripping away at Quigg at points in the tenth. In part thanks to his quick start, I had Valdez narrowly up 6-4 heading into the all important championship rounds.
Legendary trainer Freddie Roach told Scott Quigg that he needed a finish to win going into the eleventh. I wasn’t sure that was necessarily true at the time, but he came out looking for it. He ended up eating massive hooks to the body yet again in response though without getting more than a single right hand here and there. Valdez was fatigued, but he got the better shots in. That is he did until a couple big shots in the final minute. One of them put him down, but unfortunately it was a low blow. When the action resume, Valdez landed a massive left hook that clearly bothered his British opponent to close the round. The eleventh round almost ended up being very hard to score, but I gave it to Oscar Valdez took it on that last big shot.
Entering the twelfth both fighters looked physically looked like bloody caricatures of themselves. The rain poured down hard in the outdoor venue, but not as hard as the punches. The fight didn’t reach the fevered pitch it looked like it was heading for in the twelfth, but the site of Scott Quigg’s squished nose and Valdez’s blood filled mouth was still a sight to see. Oscar Valdez took the twelfth on outside boxing of all things.
I scored it 116-112 for Oscar Valdez with him taking the beginning and ending of the fight overall. Quigg was great in the middle, but he didn’t sustain it. Official scores came back 117-111 and 118-110 for Oscar Valdez. Those cards were maybe a little wide, but the right man won. Post-fight Valdez indicated that Quigg somehow damaged his teeth. The one benefit of work causing me to get this up late is that I can also confirm his jaw was injured as well. He also dismissed concern about Quigg’s wait and refused to call out anyone in particular.
Andy Vences (20-0-1, 12 KOs) and Erick De Leon (17-0-1, 12 KOs) put on a decent opening bout on the way to their majority draw, but most watching that Andy Vences should have gotten the win. I agree, though not by as wide of scores as I have seen floating around social media. I scored it 96-94. His longer arms and better footwork lead to largely better work more consistently. De Leon got his in too though. Top Rank was clearly hoping that one of their perceived to be lesser prospects would take a big step forward here at the expense of the other. While it was a fine fight, that didn’t happen and they are likely disappointed. I don’t think either of these guys has the athleticism to compete successfully at the sport’s world level.
