Óscar Valdez

Óscar Valdez (born December 22, 1990 in Nogales ) is a Mexican professional boxer and current WBO featherweight champion.

Valdez took as an amateur in 2008 at the age of 17 years at the Olympic Games in Beijing in the bantamweight part, was second in the American championships in 2009 and 2010 in the featherweight and 2011 bantamweight bronze medalist and the 2009 world championships in the featherweight. He was the first Mexican to win a medal at world championships. Valdez also started for Mexico City in the World Series of Boxing .

Amateur career

Valdez surprisingly won the Mexican bantamweight championships in 2007 at the age of 16, including a semi-final victory over the master of the 2007 American Championships, Carlos Cuadras. The following year he took part in the American Olympic qualification tournament in Port of Spain , now as the established Mexican No. 1 in bantamweight (-57kg) , and won the Olympic qualification with a semi-final victory over James Dean Pereira from Brazil (14:12) . In the final he lost to Yankiel León ( Cuba ) 5:14.

At the Olympic Games in Beijing Valdez lost in the first fight against the later Olympic champion Enchbatyn Badar-Uugan ( Mongolia ) with 4:15. This did not end the 2008 competition year for Valdez; at the youth world championships he won the gold medal in the featherweight (-57kg) sovereign, where he also managed a victory against the later Olympic champion Fazliddin Gʻoibnazarov .

In 2009 Valdez took part in the American championships for the first time and was able to win the silver medal after victories over Cesar Villarraga from Colombia (6: 4) and Jorge Maisonet from Puerto Rico (8: 3) as well as a final defeat against the Brazilian Robson Conceição (5: 6) . At the world championships in the same year, Valdez fought his way to victory over Clive Atwell from Guyana (14: 3), David Oliver Joyce from Ireland (16:11), Ju Min Jae from South Korea (9: 6) and Azat Hovhannisyan from Armenia (14 : 9) and a semi-final defeat by Vasyl Lomatschenko from Ukraine (1:12) the bronze medal.

In the following year Valdez won two international tournaments in Caguas and San Juan , before he reached the final again at the American championships and this time failed to Roberto Navarro ( Dominican Republic ) (8: 9). He also won the Central American and Caribbean Games in Mayagüez that year .

As of 2011, due to a reform of the AIBA weight classes, Valdez started again in the bantamweight (-56kg) and won the silver medal at the American championships, defeating the Brazilian Robenilson de Jesus in the semi-finals with 23:10 and in the final against Lázaro Álvarez from Cuba lost with 15:19. At the World Championships in the same year Valdez lost just under in the round of 16 against Joseph Diaz from the USA (21:22). He missed the direct qualification for the Olympic Games in London in 2012 and therefore took part in the American Olympic qualification tournament in Rio de Janeiro in 2012 . He won this tournament with victories over Jose Diaz from Venezuela (18: 8), Oscar Negrete from Colombia (15: 9), Julio Cortez from Ecuador , Robenilson de Jesus from Brazil (9: 8) and Alberto Melián from Argentina (29: 11) and qualified for the Olympic Games.

At the 2012 Olympic Games he won against Shiva Thapa (14: 9) and Anwar Junussow (13: 7) before failing in the quarter-finals to John Joe Nevin (13:19).

Professional career

In November 2012 he switched to the professional camp and won his first eleven fights in a row prematurely, where he was junior champion of the NABF in super featherweight. He celebrated his first points win in July 2014 against Juan Ruiz. After a number of other significant victories, he defeated Yevgeny Gradovich in the fight for the NABO featherweight title in April 2016 .

On July 23, 2016 Valdez boxed in Las Vegas against the undefeated Matias Rueda for the vacant WBO world featherweight title and won by TKo in the second round. He won his first title defense on November 5, 2016 in Las Vegas by TKo in the seventh round against Hiroshige Ōsawa.

Others

Valdez is left-handed and 1.65 m tall.