Oscar Valdez (33-3, 24 KOs) labored to an unimpressive, powerless 10-round unanimous decision win over the much younger 24-year-old Ricky Medina (16-4, 9 KOs) in a super featherweight fight on Saturday night at the Domo Binacional in his hometown of Nogales, Sonora, Mexico.
(Credit: Zanfer Boxing)
Fading Hopes for a Comeback
Medina used his size to walk Valdez down, landing often to the head. His power wasn’t huge, but he still connected with many shots that often forced Valdez to hold. Seeing Oscar, 34, forced to hold to neutralize the repeated attacks from Medina was disturbing. Eight years ago, Valdez would have likely made short work of a fighter like Medina. The youth of 3000 years ago is gone.
Valdez was at his best in rounds four and five, landing shots to the head and sharp punches to the body of Medina. He appeared to be on his way to knocking out Medina. However, the younger fighter proved to be resilient, taking Valdez’s best shots and continuing to walk him down to land his own. His punches weren’t as powerful-looking as Valdez’s, but the fact that he kept landing made the fight hard for the aging ex-champion.
Valdez unloaded on Medina in the 10th round, trying hard to knock him out, but he absorbed everything and continued firing back. The final moments of the round saw Valdez once again forced to hold Medina to neutralize his offense. It was a bad look.
The fight was intended to be a confidence-builder for the former two-division world champion Valdez, who came into the contest badly needing a pick-me-up win after going 2-3 in his last five bouts. Tonight, Valdez’s confidence has to have hit rock bottom, as he struggled all the way through against Medina.
Age Catches Up to a Champion
The scores were 97-93, 100-90, and 98-92. There’s no question that Valdez dominated the fight and deserved to win by the lopsided scores handed in by the three judges. But it wasn’t the kind of performance he needed to show that he’s capable of becoming a world champion again at super featherweight.
That was Valdez’s stated goal before tonight’s fight. He wanted to make a statement to gain momentum and pursue one of the world champions at 130. He’d slipped from the top 15 in all four sanctioning bodies’ rankings. Tonight’s performance may not have been good enough for any of the four to give Valdez a ranking in the top tier.
“I know today wasn’t my best performance, but I promise to come back home and deliver a great fight,” said Valdez after the fight. “I don’t like to give excuses, but I hurt my shoulder in the first round, and that impeded what I wanted to do. But thank God we got past this fight.
“I want to be a world champion again. I want to come back home with that world title.”