By Steve Kim
The original plan was to have featherweight prospect Oscar Valdez as the opening bout on TruTV on June 26th from Hidalgo, Texas. The next night from the StubHub Center in Carson, California, lightweight contender Diego Magdaleno was scheduled to be on the underneath Timothy Bradley-Jesse Vargas, which is headlining on HBO.
Both boxers are managed by Frank Espinoza, who along with Top Rank has had to shuffle the deck.
"Diego has an opportunity to fight for the WBO (lightweight) eliminator so he's now scheduled to fight on July 26th. It's an opportunity of a lifetime to fight for that eliminator and we feel very confident he's going to win that fight and he'll be ranked number one and be the mandatory," said Espinoza, who says his southpaw will be facing Jose Gonzalez as the co-feature to Gilberto Ramirez-Derek Edwards. The vacant WBO 135-pound belt is being contested between Jose Zepeda and Terry Flanagan on July 11th in the U.K.
Espinoza continued,"As for Valdez, now he's scheduled for June 27th at the StubHub Center and so we're looking for him to fight his first ten-rounder."
The 24-year old Valdez, a two-time Mexican Olympian, has a record of 15-0(14 KO's) and his considered one of the sports most promising young fighters.
Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.