The young featherweight titleholder has recovered from injury.
Undefeated WBO featherweight titleholder Oscar Valdez (26-0, 19 KOs) suffered a broken jaw in his exciting March defense against durable British former super bantamweight titleholder Scott Quigg. It was such a severe injury that the 27 year old spent a good deal of time with his jaw wired shut, only able to drink from a straw. That’s not an ideal situation for someone who has to be able to absorb punches sometimes for a living. He is reportedly healed and set to return to the ring anyway.
Bob Arum says that the targeted date for Valdez’s return is January 12th for a Top Rank on ESPN show to be broadcast on the main network. Hopefully it isn’t the main event though as Arum as openly admitted that he won’t be facing top competition given the injury and subsequent time away from the sport. More exciting than a Valdez tune up, however, is the stated plan to next match the Mexican titleholder in a unification bout with the winner of Josh Warrington’s late December WBO defense against Carl Frampton. Top Rank gets along quite well with their promoter in Frank Warren and the two share ESPN as their American broadcasting outlet, so it stands to reason that the unification bout would be easy to make.
Plus, with the rumors of Leo Santa Cruz and Gary Russell Jr having a unification fight of their own swirling around, that could put us tantalizingly only one fight from an undisputed champion in the division. I still don’t think PBC and Top Rank would be able to work together to make it happen though. Of course, injuries could derail the plan, or maybe Warrington-Frampton would be compelling or controversial enough to demand a rematch of its own. Anything could happen to stop Valdez from getting the winner. There is no certainty here. The potential is a tantalizing thought for the middle of 2019 though.
