At the age of 28, Oscar is a six-year pro. The WBO featherweight world champion, he won the title in July, 2016, and has made four successful title defenses.
He is one of boxing’s brightest rising young stars.
Before his debut, Oscar was an elite international amateur, considered one of the best in the history of Mexican amateur boxing. He also had a fight in AIBA’s World Series of Boxing in December, 2010, but continued to fight as an amateur for two more years after that.
Oscar is the first Mexican boxer to compete in two Olympic Games – in Beijing when he was only 17 years old in 2008, and again in London in 2012. He is also the first Mexican to win a medal at the World Championships – a bronze in 2009 – and was the flag bearer for Mexico at the Central American Games in 2010.
He had impressive amateur wins against current upcoming young contenders Diego de la Hoya and Fazliddin Gaibnazarov, who was a 2016 Olympic gold medalist, as well as Carlos Cuadras and Rey Vargas, both of whom went on to win professional world titles.
As a pro, Oscar has stayed active in the ring and made impressive progress. He fought six times in 2013, six times in 2014, and four times in 2015 – he stepped up in class of opposition, gave consistently solid performances, and rose to the top of the world rankings.
He fought three times in 2016, which included winning the WBO title in July and making his first title defense four months later in November. He defended the title two times in 2017.
In his last fight on March 10, 2018, in Carson, California, he made his fourth defense of the title with a 12-round unanimous decision win against former WBA super bantamweight world champion Scott Quigg. Oscar’s jaw was broken in the fifth round, and a medical procedure to wire it shut was done the following Monday.
ESPN.com’s Dan Rafael reported from ringside [excerpts]: Oscar Valdez and Scott Quigg turned in a classic battle at the rain-soaked StubHub Center.
It was a bloody, back-and-forth brawl, but in the end it was Valdez who retained his featherweight world title for the fourth time on a unanimous decision, with the judges giving him scores of 118-110, 117-111 and 117-111.
The fight was in some jeopardy as of Saturday morning because Quigg didn’t make weight Friday. While Valdez weighed 125.8 for the 126-pound fight, Quigg was 128.8 pounds, and ineligible to win Valdez’s world title….
However, the fight was hung up because Quigg refused the Valdez camp’s demand for a Saturday-morning weight check, and some in Valdez’s camp advised him not to go through with the fight.
Valdez decided to fight….
It turned out to be a rock ’em, sock ’em fight-of-the-year candidate that left both fighters with ugly facial injuries. Valdez was taken to Harbor-UCLA Medical Center to have his jaw examined.
Had Quigg won, he would not have claimed the title. It would have been vacant. But Valdez, despite clearly being the smaller man, stood his ground and fought through an injured mouth for much of the fight. On fight night, Quigg was 142.2 pounds and Valdez was 135.6.
Valdez opened the fight doing what he does best – landing left hooks to the head and body against Quigg, who came into the fight with a stress fracture in his right foot and looked as if he wasn’t moving as well as usual.
Valdez pounded Quigg with combinations, but Quigg’s extra bulk allowed him to take the punches. The fight was action-packed, especially the fifth round, when Quigg broke Valdez’s jaw. Valdez opened a cut over Quigg’s left eye and then suffered the jaw injury. Quigg also rocked Valdez with a right hand and appeared to have him in some trouble late in the round.
[Trainer Manny] Robles was so concerned about the injury that he stopped taking Valdez’s mouthpiece out between rounds.
Quigg threw Valdez to the mat in the sixth round and was given a hard warning by referee Lou Moret.
Blood continued to come out of Valdez’s mouth in the seventh round. Quigg was also a bloody mess, with cuts on his face, swelling on his forehead and what Quigg said was a broken nose.
Valdez continued to go to the body with hurtful hooks while Quigg looked for right hands to the head. They battled toe to toe in a fight worthy of the reputation of the StubHub Center’s “War Grounds” nickname.
Quigg landed a right hand very low with 20 seconds left in the 11th round, and Moret gave Valdez time to recover. When the fight resumed, Valdez went right after Quigg and badly hurt him with a left hook to the head that drove him into the ropes.
Quigg and Valdez came out swinging in the final round. They were both bloody, hurt and exhausted, but they fought hard to the final bell. [End Rafael item]
In his post-fight interview, Oscar said, “I have always said that I want to fight the best, and tonight I beat a great fighter in a hell of a war. I’m proud of myself and my team.
“Scott’s a tremendous fighter. Look what he did to my teeth. Much respect to him. It was a war. He caught me with some good shots. He’s a tough fighter. It’s boxing – he gets hit, I get hit.”
On August 13, Oscar announced that he has hired Eddy Reynoso as his new trainer. Reynoso is well known as the career-long trainer of Canelo Alvarez.
In earlier interviews, Oscar said, “I train in two gyms back home in Hermosillo. One is called CUM, and Hernan Marquez, the former world champion, he opened up a gym called HTM – for Hernan ‘Tyson’ Marquez. I just do light workouts for two weeks in Hermosillo.
“I’m more of a boxer. I don’t really consider myself as a hard-hitting fighter, but I can do all different styles. I can bang with a fighter – if the guy boxes, I can put pressure. If I’m fighting a pressure guy, I can also box. Whatever the fighter brings, I’ll switch it up.
“I don’t really have a nickname. Back when I was an amateur, they used to call me ‘El Niño’ ’cause I was the smallest one on the team. I was 17 years old, and the rest of them were like 20, 23. As a pro, I didn’t really think of a nickname. I’m just called Oscar Valdez.”
AMATEUR, PERSONAL BACKGROUND: Oscar said, “I was born in Nogales, Sonora. Then, when I was around one year old, my mother and father moved to Tucson, so they took me there as a baby. I did my elementary school there, first grade to fifth grade. After that, my mother and father got a divorce and I went with my father back to Mexico. All of junior high I did in Mexico and high school, as well.
“My dad, he’s a manager. He used to work at the mines in Tucson. He used to box as an amateur. My mom works at a telephone company, she’s an operator. I’ve got a lot of brothers and sisters! I’m the oldest one. By my father and mother, there’s four of us. They got a divorce when I was 11 years old. My mom, after years, got married again with a great guy and had twins with him. My dad, he had a kid with another woman, then he got a divorce with her and had another child after that. But I don’t consider them stepbrothers – I’m the oldest, and I love them all. I’m the only boxer in my family. My brother is really good in school, so we’re kind of opposites. They’re all in school – I guess I’m the only one that likes sports. I’ve been athletic since I was a little kid. But I’ve got cousins that fight, and girl cousins that fight.
“I first went into the gym when I was eight years old and my first fight, I had it when I was nine. Ever since we were little my whole family was really into boxing. Ever since we were little babies – four or five years old – they would put the gloves on us, me and my little cousins, and we would just go at it! So, it was like a family thing, like ‘Whose son is better? Who’s the better cousin out of us?’ I just fell in love with the sport ever since. I never left it.
“A lot of fighters don’t count their amateur fights. They just say, ‘Oh, around 250.’ Me, I counted each and every fight I had. I finished with 204 amateur fights. I had probably 27 losses – in the amateurs, you win a lot, you lose a lot.
“I had a good run as an amateur. I was on the Mexican national team for about five years – it was the greatest experience for me!
“I won only about four nationals in Mexico. The thing with me, I would always be the number one. I would go to the international tournaments. When there was a national tournament here in Mexico, whoever would get the gold medal would get to eliminate himself with me. I would come back from the internationals and eliminate whoever got the gold. I didn’t win a lot of nationals because I didn’t participate in them.
“My English wasn’t really that good until I went to Mexico City, to the training camp there. I did four years over there in Mexico City in the Olympic Village. A good friend of mine, Oscar Molina, also stayed there. He’s from Norwalk, California. We were roommates for four years and I didn’t speak nothing but English with him, so it got real good.
“I live in Hermosillo, Sonora, now. I’ve lived here since 2012. I’m naturally right-handed. I’m not married, but I have a girlfriend. We’ve been living together for almost four years already.
“Back home, I’ve got two alligators. I’ve had one for six years already. When I got him, it was about the size of a lizard, now it’s about my size! People think I’m kind of crazy, but I’m always cautious with them. Those guys in Thailand, they put their head inside their mouth, their hand inside their mouth. I would never do that! I used to have one in my house until he got real big. So, I took it over to a farm I have. I made a little pond for them and I keep them there.”…
AMATEUR HIGHLIGHTS:
2012 OLYMPIC GAMES – London, England, 123 pounds: in his first fight on 7-28-12 he won a 14-9 decision against Shiva Thapa of India; in his second fight on 8-1-12 he won a 13-7 decision against Anvar Yunusov of Tajikistan; in the quarterfinals on 8-5-12 he lost a 19-13 decision against John Joe Nevin of Ireland; The Daily Mail reported [excerpts]: Ireland’s John Joe Nevin will add an Olympic medal to the two World Championship bronzes he has already won after beating Mexico’s Oscar Valdez 19-13 in their Olympic bantamweight quarter-final. The Mullingar man survived a final round knockdown to see off his aggressive opponent….
Nevin started the fight on the back-foot, enjoying some success picking off the former World Youth champion’s advances, but the pair were locked at 5-5 after the first, and the Mexican started the second well. The Irishman struggled to regain his poise as the Mexican began relying on heavy right hands, but Nevin’s excellent movement blocked the majority of shots and his more patient approach saw him edge into a three point lead.
Nevin was forced to cling on to see the bout out after being dropped and clearly winded by a left hook to the body, but the judges rewarded his cleaner work…. [End Daily Mail item]
2012 AMERICAS OLYMPIC QUALIFIER – Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 123 pounds – GOLD MEDALIST: in his first fight on 5-5-12 he won an 18-8 decision against Jose Diaz of Venezuela; in his second fight on 5-6-12 he won a 15-9 decision against Oscar Negrete of Colombia; in the quarterfinals on 5-8-12 he won a 23-9 decision against Julio Cortez of Ecuador; in the semifinals 5-11-12 he won a 9-8 decision against Robenilson de Jesus Vieira of Brazil; in the finals on 5-12-12 he won a 29-11 decision against Alberto Melian of Argentina…
2012 INDEPENDENCE CUP – Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic, 123 pounds – GOLD MEDALIST: in his first fight on 2-19-12 he won a 25-3 decision against Fernando Duran of Honduras; in the quarterfinals on 2-20-12 he won a 22-4 decision against Edwin Rodriguez of Puerto Rico; in the semifinals on 2-22-12 he won a 5-0 decision against William Encarnacion of Dominican Republic; in the finals on 2-23-12 he won a 4-1 decision against Diego de la Hoya of Mexico…
2011 PAN AMERICAN GAMES – Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, 123 pounds – SILVER MEDALIST: in the quarterfinals (his first fight) on 10-23-11 he won a 22-8 decision against Luis Porozo of Ecuador; in the semifinals on 10-25-11 he won a 23-10 decision against Robenilson de Jesus Vieira of Brazil; in the finals on 10-28-11 he lost a 19-15 decision against Lazaro Alvarez of Cuba…
2011 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – Baku, Azerbaijan, 123 pounds: in his first fight on 10-3-11 he stopped Dmitriy Zhukov of Belarus in the 3rd round; in his second fight on 10-4-11 he lost a 22-21 decision against Joseph Diaz of the U.S.…
2011 MEXICAN NATIONAL OLYMPIAD – Merida, Yucatán, Mexico, 123 pounds [incomplete results] – GOLD MEDALIST: in the semifinals on 5-10-11 he defeated Jesus Arevalo; in the finals on 5-12-11 he defeated Diego Gonzalez…
2010 WORLD SERIES OF BOXING – 132 pounds: on 12-17-10 in Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico, he won a 5 round unanimous decision against Leonid Malkov, scored 48-47, 48-47, 48-46…
2010 CENTRAL AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN GAMES – Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, 125 pounds – GOLD MEDALIST: in the quarterfinals (his first fight) on 7-26-10 he won a 6-2 decision against Angel Rodriguez of Venezuela; in the semifinals on 7-28-10 he won a 4-3 decision against Roberto Navarro of Dominican Republic; in the finals on 7-31-10 he won a 15-4 decision against Juan Reyes of Guatemala…
2010 PAN AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – Quito, Ecuador, 125 pounds – SILVER MEDALIST: in the quarterfinals (his first fight) on 6-15-10 he won a 14-4 decision against Juan Reyes of Guatemala; in the semifinals on 6-17-10 he won a 10-0 decision against Braulio Santos of Puerto Rico; in the finals on 6-18-10 he lost a 9-8 decision against Roberto Navarro of Dominican Republic…
2009 AIBA PRESIDENT´S CUP – Baku, Azerbaijan, 125 pounds – GOLD MEDALIST: in the quarterfinals (his first fight) on 12-9-09 he stopped Jean John Colin of Mauritius in the 1st round; in the semifinals on 12-10-09 he won a 6-2 decision against Elshan Ismailov of Azerbaijan; in the finals on 12-11-09 he won a 7-2 decision against Dmitriy Polyansky of Russia…
2009 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS – Milan, Italy, 125 pounds – BRONZE MEDALIST: in his first fight on 9-3-09 he won a 14-3 decision against Clive Atwell of Guyana; in his second fight on 9-6-09 he won a 16-11 decision against David Oliver Joyce of Ireland; in his third fight on 9-8-09 he won a 9-6 decision against Ju Min Jae of South Korea; in the quarterfinals on 9-9-09 he won a 14-9 decision against Azat Hovhannesyan of Armenia; in the semifinals on 9-11-09 he lost a 12-1 decision against Vasyl Lomachenko of Ukraine…
2009 PAN AMERICAN CHAMPIONSHIPS – Mexico City, Distrito Federal, Mexico, 125 pounds – SILVER MEDALIST: in the quarterfinals (his first fight) on 7-23-09 he won a 6-4 decision against Cesar Villarraga of Colombia; in the semifinals on 7-25-09 he won an 8-3 decision against Jorge Maysonet Jr. of Puerto Rico; in the finals on 7-26-09 he lost a 6-5 decision against Robson Conceicao of Brazil…
2008 WORLD YOUTH CHAMPIONSHIPS – Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, 125 pounds/17-18 year-old division – GOLD MEDALIST: in his first fight on 10-25-08 he stopped Cobia Breedy of Barbados in the 2nd round; in his second fight on 10-27-08 he won a 19-4 decision against Berik Koitayev of Kazakstan; in the quarterfinals on 10-29-08 he won a 13-1 decision against Fazliddin Gaibnazarov of Uzbekistan; in the semifinals on 10-31-08 he stopped Oleg Scheffer of Ukraine in the 1st round; in the finals on 11-1-08 he won a 12-0 decision against Maxim Dadashev of Russia…
2008 OLYMPIC GAMES – Beijing, People’s Republic of China, 119 pounds: in his first fight on 8-12-08 he lost a 15-4 decision against Enkhbat Badar-Uugan of Mongolia…
2008 AIBA PRESIDENTS CUP – Taipei, Taiwan, 119 pounds: in his first fight on 5-26-08 he lost a 17-10 decision against Zinat Zhandybayev of Russia…
2008 AMERICAN OLYMPIC QUALIFIER – Port of Spain, Trinidad & Tobago, 119 pounds – SILVER MEDALIST: in the quarterfinals (his first fight) on 3-14-08 he won a 16-13 decision against John Wampash of Ecuador; in the semifinals on 3-17-08 he won a 14-12 decision against James Dean Pereira of Brazil; in the finals on 3-18-08 he lost a 15-4 decision against Yankiel Leon of Cuba…
2007 MEXICAN NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS – Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, 119 pounds – GOLD MEDALIST [incomplete results]: in the semifinals on 12-5-07 he defeated Carlos Cuadras; in the finals on 12-7-07 he won a 13-7 decision against Rey Vargas…
STRENGTHS: Has good skills and movement…has good punching power, a good body puncher…is versatile – can pressure his opponents or box and move…is experienced against good opposition…had a tremendous amateur background…
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE: 24 fights…123 total rounds…45 world championship rounds…
AVERAGE LENGTH OF BOUTS: 5.1 rounds…
KNOCKOUT PERCENTAGE: 79 %…
DISTANCE FIGHTS: 12 rounds – 3 (3-0)…10 rounds – 1 (1-0)…