Oscar Valdez and Liam Wilson both made weight at the weigh-in on Thursday for their clash for the IBF WBO interim super featherweight title this Friday night on ESPN+ at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona. The action kicks off at 6:10 p.m. ET/3:10 p.m. PT on ESPN+.
The Valdez vs. Wilson fight is a strange one. Emanuel Navarrete recently beat both guys, and now they’re fighting for what is expected to be his giveaway belt. Although Navarrete looked slow and fat against Valdez, his long basketball-player-like arms enabled him to control the contest and win a one-sided 12-round decision.
Navarrete is moving up and fighting for the vacant WBO lightweight title against Denys Berinchyk on May 18th. If he wins that, he’ll probably vacate his WBO featherweight belt, which means whoever wins the Valdez-Wilson fight will be elevated to full WBO super featherweight champion.
It’s a backdoor route to becoming champion, but the Valdez vs. Wilson winner won’t turn it down. You hate to see the former two-division world champion Oscar Valdez (31-2, 23 KOs) reduced to winning a belt in this manner, but he’ll take what he can get at this point in his career.
Wilson (13-2, 7 KOs) is not a sure thing win for Valdez, and there’s a chance he loses unless the Aussie runs out of gas as he did in his ninth-round knockout loss to Navarrete last year.
Complete Weights for Friday on ESPN+
Oscar Valdez 129.7 vs. Liam Wilson 129.6
Seniesa Estrada 104.2 vs. Yokasta Valle 104.3
Raymond Muratalla 137.1 vs. Xolisani Ndongeni 137.1
Lindolfo Delgado 140.7 vs. Carlos Sanchez 140.4
Richard Torrez Jr. 236.6 vs. Don Haynesworth 276.5
Sergio Rodriguez 163.9 vs. Sanny Duversonne 163.7
Emiliano Fernando Vargas 136.5 lbs vs. Nelson Hampton 136
Alan Garcia 135.9 vs. Gonzalo Fuenzalida 137.9
Art Barrera Jr. 141.6 vs. Keven Soto 139.7
Ricardo Ruvalcaba 140.9 vs. Avner Hernandez Molina 140.6
Valdez on the Decline
Oscar Valdez’s recent losses to Navarrete and Shakur Stevenson show that he’s on the decline at 33 and not the fighter that he was years ago. But even in his prime, he wouldn’t have beaten those two. Stevenson is too fast, and Navarrete is way too big for the 130-lb weight class.
