Whenever he encounters Oscar Valdez, Miguel Berchelt expects the former featherweight champion to try to box him.
Berchelt believes Valdez and his respected trainer, Eddy Reynoso, realize trading with him would be a bad idea. Mexico’s Berchelt talked about his 130-pound title fight versus Valdez during an interview with Top Rank’s Lupe Contreras, which was conducted Tuesday on that promotional company’s YouTube channel.
“I think they will have to come up with a good strategy,” Berchelt said of a bout that will be scheduled once the coronavirus crisis ends. “It’s worth noting that Oscar has already suffered an injury [to] his jaw. If I’m not mistaken, it happened in his fight against Scott Quigg. He broke his jaw. That’s why I believe they are going to try to fight a smart fight. He is also moving up in weight, and I don’t think he should be trading punches with me.”
The 29-year-old Valdez valiantly fought for seven-plus rounds with a broken jaw when he out-pointed England’s Quigg unanimously in March 2018 at Stub Hub Center in Carson, California. Valdez had his jaw wired shut following that 12-round victory.
The former WBO featherweight champion remains unbeaten (27-0, 21 KOs), yet late replacement Adam Lopez dropped Valdez in the second round of Valdez’s 130-pound debut. Valdez survived that trouble, floored Lopez (13-2, 6 KOs) in the seventh round and beat him by technical knockout in that same seventh round November 30 at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas.
The 28-year-old Berchelt (37-1, 33 KOs) has won 16 consecutive contests since suffering his lone loss – a first-round TKO to unheralded Luis Florez in March 2014 in Palenque, Mexico. Most recently, the WBC super featherweight champion knocked out former WBA 130-pound champ Jason Sosa (23-4-4, 16 KOs) in the fourth round of their November 2 bout at Dignity Health Sports Park, formerly known as Stub Hub Center.
“I believe Oscar is a great fighter,” Berchelt said. “I respect him a lot, but now we must face each other. I think Eddy Reynoso has come to add a lot of good things to his corner. He has also done a good job with Canelo Alvarez and Ryan Garcia. Now he is doing it with Oscar Valdez. It’s an excellent team. But on my side, I’m the champion and I also have a great trainer in Alfredo Caballero. It will be a great fight between Mexican fighters and Mexican trainers.”
Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.