Oscar Valdez and Liam Wilson weigh in Thursday ahead of their fight for the IBF WBO interim super featherweight title, which will be broadcast on ESPN+ from Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona on Friday night. . The action kicks off at 6:10pm ET/3:10pm PT on ESPN+.
(Credit: Mikey Williams/Top Rank)
Navarrete Victims Club
The Valdez vs. Wilson fight is a strange one. Emmanuel Navarrete recently defeated both fighters, and now they are fighting for what is expected to be his gift belt. Navarrete looked slow and fat against Valdez, but controlled the fight with his long arms like a basketball player, winning a lopsided 12-round decision.
Navarrete stepped up and is fighting Dennis Belinczyk for the vacant WBO lightweight title on May 18th. If he wins that, he will likely relinquish the WBO featherweight belt, and a Valdez-Wilson match would move him up to become the outright WBO super featherweight champion.
This is a backdoor route to becoming a champion, but the winner of Valdez vs. Wilson won't turn it down. I hate to see former two-division world champion Oscar Valdez (31-2, 23 KOs) fall short of winning a belt like this, but he's given everything he can get at this point in his career. will receive it.
Wilson (13-2, 7 KOs) is not a surefire win for Valdez, and unless the Australian runs out of gas like he did last year when he suffered a ninth-round knockout loss to Navarrete, a loss is a possibility.
Complete Friday Weights on ESPN+
Oscar Valdez 129.7 vs. Liam Wilson 129.6
Seniesa Estrada 104.2 vs. Jocasta Valle 104.3
Raymond Muratala 137.1 vs. Zolisani Ndongeni 137.1
Lindolfo Delgado 140.7 vs. Carlos Sanchez 140.4
Richard Torres Jr. 236.6 vs. Don Hainsworth 276.5
Sergio Rodriguez 163.9 vs. Sunny Duvelsonne 163.7
Emiliano Fernando Vargas 136.5 pounds vs. Nelson Hampton 136 pounds
Alan Garcia 135.9 vs. Gonzalo Fuensalida 137.9
Art Barrera Jr. 141.6 vs. Keven Soto 139.7
Ricardo Rubalcaba 140.9 vs. Abner Hernandez Molina 140.6
Valdez in decline
Oscar Valdez's recent losses to Navarrete and Shakur Stevenson show that he is fading at 33 years old and is not the fighter he was a few years ago. But even in their prime, they would have never been able to beat those two. Stevenson is too fast and Navarrete is too big for the 130-pound weight class.
