Oscar Collazo's lacking contender Neider Valdez steps into title shot
Jun 18, 2026 • 4:02 AM ET
Cris Esqueda / Golden Boy PromotionsMexico’s Neider Valdez hasn’t won four of his past six bouts, and one of his victories came against an 0-1 opponent.
Title-fight worthy? Hardly.
Yet, in the desperate situation of needing unified minimumweight champion Oscar Collazo’s Saturday night title defense on DAZN at Frontwave Arena in Oceanside, California, to mean something, a title fight it is.
Valdez 15-3-3 (12 KOs) arrived in California Wednesday and was quickly added to promotional material marketing his fight versus Puerto Rico’s Collazo 14-0 (11 KOs) as a WBA/WBO title bout despite the challenger residing outside the top 15 contenders of both bodies.
It’s pushing it to make a case that Valdez, 25, belongs in the bout given his recent slide, that includes three losses within a 14-month span into last year.
A March 24 TKO loss to Erik Badillo was followed by a second-round knockout loss to Victor Sebastian Rojas Gonzalez in May 2025.
A first-round TKO victory in March came against the 0-1 Jose Leonard Gomez, and Valdez then took a draw less than three weeks ago versus Gerardo Rodriguez Alvarado in Mexico.
One official connected to the bout said that while Valdez’s credentials for a title shot are flimsy, the dire situation of failing to bring planned top-15 contender Joey Canoy from the Philippines, and then discovering a replacement from Mexico was unavailable, makes the title defense palatable.
DAZN and the ticket office promoted a Collazo title defense, and while Valdez is a lacking challenger, there’s only two days before the title fight.
Lance Pugmire has been a full-time boxing writer for nearly 20 years, serving now as BoxingScene’s U.S. Senior Writer and assistant producer for ProBoxTV’s “BoxingScene Today.” Pugmire capped a near 20-year career at the Los Angeles Times (sports investigations, NHL/MLB beat work, law enforcement/courts and boxing/UFC) to join The Athletic, and then USA Today. Pugmire’s stint at The Times started with the first Israel Vazquez-Rafael Marquez fight and the Oscar De La Hoya-Floyd Mayweather Jnr then-record pay-per-view, leading through a slew of ringside assignments at major bouts, including Mayweather-Pacquiao, Mayweather-Canelo and the Canelo-Golovkin trilogy. Lance’s appreciation for boxing is rooted in his admiration and appreciation for the fighters, gladiators who have proven to be the most forthcoming and candid of all the athletes he has interviewed over a career dating to 1990. Lance was honored to be named the 2022 winner of the Boxing Writers Association of America Nat Fleischer Award for career excellence and he’s collected many BWAA writing awards in categories ranging from breaking news to deep-dive long features.
