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Steve KimESPN
As WBO featherweight champion Oscar Valdez prepares to face the undefeated Jason Sanchez on Saturday at the Reno-Sparks Convention Center in Reno, Nevada, his days as a 126-pounder are numbered, regardless of the result.
“I am struggling a little more to make weight and definitely my plans are to move up to 130 in the near future,” Valdez told ESPN. “My body is already telling me to go up to 130. I feel I’ll be a better fighter, a stronger fighter. It’s still going to be a tough division, there’s tough fighters in that division, also there are other guys moving up in weight.”
But before Valdez (25-0, 20 KOs) tangles with the elite fighters at junior lightweight, there’s work to be done. Top Rank, which has promoted Valdez since he turned pro in 2012, recently signed IBF featherweight belt holder Josh Warrington and the highly accomplished Carl Frampton, a former featherweight world titlist, with the intention of matching them up at some point with Valdez.
If Top Rank wants those fights to be at featherweight, they’ll have to happen soon, in Valdez’s estimation.
“If it happens, it has to happen by the end of this year because I don’t think my body can last much [longer], and I don’t want to be that type of fighter that doesn’t make weight,” Valdez said. “I work too hard in the gym to get a bad reputation of not being a disciplined fighter, not making weight.”
Valdez still has to take care of business against Sanchez (14-0, 7 KOs), but with the prospect of big fights to come, any talk of bumping up in weight will have to wait until he sees if the big matchups can be made.
“I think it’s too early to say that — I would have to see how I make weight this time, and then think about it,” Valdez said of any potential move to 130 in 2019. “I do want those fights — I really want to fight Frampton.”
Valdez points out that for his second appearance in the Olympics — in 2012, when he represented Mexico — he competed in the featherweight class and has been in that weight class throughout his professional career.
“We’re going to weigh all the options after this fight, but we know it’s an issue,” Frank Espinoza, who manages Valdez, said of long-term plans. “I really don’t want Oscar to struggle making weight. He’s been making this weight since he was a teenager and he’s 28 now. But at the same time he has wanted some career-defining fights at 126, and there are some very good options for him.”
For his part, Top Rank promoter Bob Arum doesn’t seem too worried about this situation.
“[Valdez] can stay at 126 and fight either Frampton or Warrington, or go up to 130 and challenge either [Jamel] Herring or [Miguel] Berchelt,” said Arum, whose company works with both the WBO and WBC junior lightweight champions. “Again, that’ll become clear to us after the fight, but he has a lot of options, depending on whether he wants to stay at 126, or go up to 130.”
“I’m opposed to fighters starving themselves to make a lower [weight] limit, and they come into the ring and the body is not sufficiently hydrated so that they can give a good performance,” Arum added. “So it may very well be that he [has] grown out of the 126-pound division and this would be his last fight at 126. But that’s up to him and his trainer.”
The future will come down to two factors: Valdez’s ability to make the weight, and the fights available in each division. While Valdez is a growing fighter, in the literal sense, the question at hand is whether or not he is growing as a fighter under the tutelage of trainer Eddy Reynoso.
Valdez went the distance in three hard title defenses against Miguel Marriaga, Genesis Servania and Scott Quigg. In the Quigg fight, he suffered a fractured jaw. Shortly thereafter, Valdez decided to replace trainer Manny Robles with Reynoso, best known for his role in sharpening the tools of middleweight champion Canelo Alvarez.
While Valdez is an entertaining, fan-friendly fighter, those bouts were a bit too grueling for his long-term prospects.
Valdez made his debut under Reynoso’s guidance in February, and he scored a seventh-round TKO of Carmine Tommasone.
“There were parts where I felt a little too relaxed in there, I thought I had a little ring rust, it was 11 months since my last fight. But I should be over that by now,” said Valdez, who trained with Reynoso near San Diego.
Valdez says he felt much more comfortable against Tommasone after Round 4. The expected apprehension was there early on, but eventually Valdez settled in and began to break down his Italian foe.
At his core, Valdez will always be an offensively inclined fighter, one who will initiate the action and not be hesitant to get into a heavy exchange. The focus at this point in his career is to make Valdez a more efficient boxer, one who doesn’t have to work so hard every round of a fight.
“We’re conscious that we’re not going to learn everything in just one training camp,” said Valdez, who explained that under Reynoso’s tutelage there is a heavy emphasis on head movement, overall defense, counterpunching, strategy and, most of all, making his punches count.
“I’m picking my shots better now, not just going in there and being crazy,” Valdez said. “I plan on showing that my next fight, maybe I didn’t show that much my first fight with Eddy, but this time I think I can show a lot more.
“I feel like it might not only take a camp, maybe not even two camps, but I definitely feel like I’m improving.”