By Ian S Palmer
Former WBC Jr. Lightweight and WBO Featherweight boss Oscar Valdez of Mexico takes on Adam Lopez of Glendale, California in a rematch this Saturday, May 20th. The 10-round junior lightweight bout will be broadcast live from the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada on ESPN pay-per-view while fans in the UK can view it on Sky Sports Action on the undercard of the Devin Haney vs Vasyl Lomachenko fight. Valdez last fought in April, 2022 when he lost his title via a unanimous decision to Shakur Stevenson while Lopez dropped a wide 10-round unanimous decision to Abraham Nova in January after kissing the canvas in the fifth and sixth rounds. Valdez and Lopez first met in November, 2019 when Valdez was down in the second round but he came back to stop Lopez in the seventh.
The 32-year-old Valdez also owns an impressive mark of 30-1 with 23 Ko’s and has better-than-average power with a current knockout ratio of 74.2 per cent, but he’s gone the distance in five of his last 10 bouts. He stands just over 5-feet-5-inches tall with a 66-inch reach and has 192 rounds of experience under his belt since turning pro in 2012 after a stellar amateur career.
He’s the only two-time boxing Olympian from Mexico, but failed to win a medal at the 2008 and 2012 Games in Beijing, China and London, England. Valdez did win a dozen medals in other international competitions though and had more than 200 amateur bouts. One of these included a loss to Vasyl Lomachenko and he was also beaten by Robson Conceicao in the gold medal match at the Pan American Games over 12 years ago. Valdez avenged the defeat to Conceicao as a pro when he dealt him a controversial 12-round unanimous decision in September, 2021.
Valdez hadn’t exactly been fighting a steady diet of Grade A boxers until stopping Miguel Berchelt in the 10th round in February, 2021 to win the WBC Super Featherweight Title but had wins over fine competitors such as Scott Quigg, Jason Sanchez, Miguel Marriaga, Hiroshige Osawa, Evgeny Gradovich, Chris Avalos, Jose Ramirez, Alberto Garza and Ruben Tamayo. Valdez was almost perfect when taking the crown from Berchelt and has also captured the WBO NABO Featherweight, NABF Junior Featherweight, and NABF Junior Super Featherweight Titles as a pro.
As for Lopez, he’s now 27 years old and makes his ring walk with a record of 16-4 with 6 Ko’s. He’s obviously lacking in the power department as his current knockout ratio comes in at 28.6 per cent and he hasn’t stopped an opponent since halting Jean Carlos Rivera in the seventh round in May, 2019. Lopez is 5-feet-8-inches tall with a 69.5-inch reach which gives him a 2.5-inch height and 3.5-inch reach advantage on Valdez.
Lopez has boxed 121 rounds since making his pro debut in 2016 following his amateur career. His first loss came at the hands of Stephen Fulton by way of an eighth-round unanimous decision in 2017, he was then stopped by Valdez two years later and lost a 10-round majority decision to Isaac Dogboe in June, 2021 and was then beaten by Nova in his last fight. He won the vacant NABF Featherweight Title in May, 2019 with a 10-round majority decision over Luis Coria in June, 2020, defended it with a majority decision over Jason Sanchez and then lost it to Dogboe.
Prediction…
Three of Lopez’s four defeats have been against world class boxers and future world champions so he has fallen short when stepping up in class. He also fell short in the first fight against Valdez even though he dropped him. Lopez may have his moments again in this fight but he’s not likely to win it as I’m expecting Valdez to rebound from last year’s loss to Shakur Stevenson thanks to his power and experience.
