Oscar Valdez gave his hometown fans something to cheer about, outslugging the tough Ricky Medina on his way to a unanimous decision win Saturday at Domo Binacional in Nogales, Mexico.
The judges scored the fight 97-93, 98-92 and a less defensible 100-90 mark, all for Valdez, 33-3 (24 KOs), a former two-division champion fighting for the first time in his native country since 2013. The win returned Valdez to the win column after he lost for the first time by stoppage last December, a sixth-round knockout in a rematch against Emanuel Navarrete for the WBO junior lightweight title.
San Antonio’s Medina, 10 years Valdez’s junior at age 24, fell to 16-4 (9 KOs) with the loss.
After a career full of memorable if taxing wars, Valdez, who previously held the WBO featherweight and WBC junior lightweight belts, was intent on making the fight as easy as possible, using his legs and boxing experience to land counterpunches on Medina, who is listed as half an inch taller at 5ft 6ins but made himself a bigger target by standing tall at short range. Medina was game, however, and managed to land punches in close when Valdez would keep his head stationary. Valdez continued to resist Medina’s attempts to turn the fight into a war, using his jab to score at range while walking Medina into hooks and rights.
Medina did a better job in the fourth of forcing the action, pressuring Valdez and landing cleaner shots, including a long right. Valdez began to get drawn into exchanges more, but he warmed up to the challenge in the fifth, firing combinations to the head and body, which had little effect on Medina, who continued to land with rights.
Valdez made an adjustment in the sixth by using body punches to open up punches to the head, particularly with overhand rights. In the seventh, Valdez returned to boxing instead of brawling, landing overhand rights when Medina stood too tall in close. A left hook from Valdez knocked Medina’s mouthpiece out, but it was Medina who closed the round stronger as he snuck in punches between and around the gloves.
Just as the fight became more competitive in the middle rounds, Valdez’s championship experience proved to be the difference late. Valdez was able to use Medina’s aggression against him, countering with uppercuts and hooks, while rarely missing an overhand right. Medina, following his corner’s advice to turn up the offense before the ninth, gave up his height and made himself an easy target for Valdez, who didn’t need to see his target to connect.
The two brawled to the final bell, and then exchanged demonstrations of respect while awaiting the decision.
The loss was the third in his past four fights for Medina, who has proven to be durable but fell short again in a step-up fight.
On the undercard, an interesting junior featherweight fight between Mexicali’s Jose Ramirez and Monterrey’s Jose Amaro came to an abrupt end in the third round after a freak headbutt opened a vicious cut on Ramirez’s left eye lid, slicing it nearly from end to end, resulting in a no-contest being declared at the 1-minute, 15-second mark.
Ramirez, 23-2 (12 KOs), was in control early on, using his height and boxing ability to pick off the aggressive but wild Amaro, 12-0-1 (4 KOs), before the 10-round bout was brought to an end.
Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at ryansongalia@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.
