Valdez: I Missed The Fans, What Better Way To Come Home Than As A World Champion

Writer's note: This interview was conducted prior to recent drug testing developments surrounding this event

For one of the first times in his career, Oscar Valdez doesn’t quite know what to expect heading into his next fight.

That’s not to say that he hasn’t locked down a firm game plan for an upcoming title defense versus Brazil’s Robson Conceicao (16-0, 8KOs). Valdez and his team already have that part figured out—or are at least applying the final touches. The real mystery, the unbeaten two-division titlist confesses, is how he will instantly react to the raucous cheers from his adoring fans for the first time since the pandemic.

“I never thought I’d say this but it’s going to feel weird hearing the crowd yell and cheer again when you knock someone out,” Valdez confessed to BoxingScene.com ahead of his upcoming title defense. “I really miss that. I missed the fans. What better way to come home than as a world champion.”

Valdez (29-0, 22KOs) returns to his childhood hometown of Tucson, Arizona as a two-division and reigning WBC junior lightweight champion. His upcoming first title defense versus Conceicao takes place September 10, live on ESPN+ from AVA Amphitheatre at Casino del Sol in what marks his first fight in the area in four years—nearly to the day.

It is his first fight with a crowd on hand since November 2019, when he first moved up to junior lightweight. The moment came with a major scare, surviving an early knockdown to eventually stop Adam Lopez inside of seven thrilling rounds at The Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas. Valdez—a two-time Olympian for Mexico and former WBO featherweight titlist—spent his next two fights behind closed doors at MGM Grand Conference Center in Vegas, beginning with a tenth-round stoppage of Jayson Velez last July.

The win set up his best feat to date, dominating long-reigning 130-pound champ Miguel Berchelt en route to a crushing, tenth-round knockout to win the WBC title this past February 20. The sense was that his first title defense would come in familiar surroundings, though the defending champ was prepared for any scenario.

“I didn’t know what to think after I became a world champion,” admits Valdez. “I didn’t know what was going to happen after that fight. Once that fight happened, anything after that was a mystery. Winning that WBC world championship belt was a dream come true. Anything that came after that… I could’ve defended my belt in China and it wouldn’t have mattered as long as I was fighting.

“But they did a great job bringing this fight here to Tucson, only an hour from Nogales. I know my fans from there, my family, my friends, they will all be there. So for those reasons, I’m so happy to be able to bring my world title home and defend it here.”

Valdez's last appearance in this town came in a twelve-round, unanimous decision win over Genesis Servania in a September 2017 fight that saw both fighters hit the deck. As learned that night and of which he will be reminded throughout his fight with Conceicao, with the thrill of pleasing his adoring public comes the balancing act of focusing on the task at hand.

“Whenever I fight, the crowd pumps me up. Sometimes, it’s one of my weaknesses as Eddy [Reynoso, Valdez’s head trainer] would call it,” notes Valdez. “A lot of times, my trainers would have to reel me in and tell me, ‘Stick to the game plan.’ All I hear is the crowd yelling, ‘Viva Mexico! Vamos, Oscar! That brings me an adrenaline rush. It makes me want to go out there and give the fans what they want to see.

“We try to give them what they want. A lot of times, though, I go back to the corner, Eddy pulls my ear and repeats to me, ‘Stick to the game plan.’ I can’t help it, though. I love when the fans are pumped up and cheering. It’s something I’ve missed and can’t wait to fight in front of them again.”

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox