From the editorial staff
La Jornada Newspaper
Thursday, March 28, 2024, p. a10
Óscar Valdez has only lost twice in more than a decade of career, but just one of those defeats has cost him more than he thought. Two years ago he was stripped of the world super featherweight title of the World Boxing Council (WBC) and since then he has faced a thorny path to return to the elite of this sport. The opportunity will come on Friday when he faces the American Liam Wilson for the interim title of the World Boxing Organization (WBO), in Arizona.
My dream is to be one of the greatest fighters like Marco Antonio Barrera and Julio César Chávez were, he stated yesterday in the conference before the fight, where he will seek the three-time championship.
The phrase seems simple, but it evokes precisely what Valdez has fought for since the beginning of his career as an Olympic boxer and then turned professional in 2012.
There were 30 victories that consolidated him, first as WBO featherweight champion, and later as WBC super featherweight champion. The images that represent him are just those, when he has celebrated a scepter with his face swollen from the blows or when he suffered a broken jaw in 2018.
Success and pain
If the scenes of success have consolidated him, the episodes of pain are what have driven him and now is when he faces the most complicated streak in his career. After having fallen in 2022 to Shakur Stevenson, he has been denied dressing as champion again.
That was his first defeat as a professional and later he experienced another setback when he lost to Emanuel Cowboy Navarrete. Thus, at 33 years old, Valdez intends to demonstrate that neither age nor recent falls determine his career. Furthermore, if he wins, he must wait for the winner between Navarrete and the Ukrainian Denys Berinchyk for the vacant WBO lightweight title, because if the Mexican also wins, Valdez would be elevated as world champion of the super featherweight category.
The rival, Liam Wilson, 28 years old, arrives with a record of 13 wins and two losses. Likewise, he boasts an advantage due to his greater height, 1.78 meters, 10 centimeters taller than Valdez. But the Mexican trusts in his experience.
Wilson is a dangerous fighter, but I am well motivated, he stated.
2024-03-28 10:56:07
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