By Jake Donovan
The June 27 edition of HBO’s World Championship Boxing is once again a doubleheader.
The show-which airs live from StubHub Center in Carson, Calif.—will now feature rising prospect Oscar Valdez, who faces Ruben Tamayo in a scheduled 10-round featherweight attraction, a bout that was confirmed by network brass, who otherwise declined comment.
Valdez-Tamayo serves as the chief support to the vacant welterweight title fight between Timothy Bradley and unbeaten Jessie Vargas. It also restores the show’s original intention of staging a doubleheader rather than a one-bout broadcast.
Until a few weeks ago, Humberto Soto was slated to face Raymundo Beltran in the televised co-feature. Soto was added to the show as a consolation prize for his canceled May 9 appearance, when intended opponent Frankie Gomez was a full weight class over the contracted limit and thus forced off of the show.
Soto agreed to appear on this card versus Beltran, who in turn was pulled after producing a positive drug test from his May 1 knockout win over Takahiro Aoh.
Efforts to keep Soto on the card came in the form of Jose Felix Jr. agreeing to move up in weight and off of a June 13 UniMas-televised bout to face the hard-luck junior welterweight. No sooner than the fight was made, Soto was forced to withdraw after suffering an injury during training camp. Felix Jr. was moved back to the June 13 show (which he won), thus leaving the door open for Valdez to make his debut on HBO’s flagship network.
Valdez (15-0, 14KOs) comes in as one of the more highly touted younger fighters in the world today. A two-time Olympic boxer for Mexico (2008, 2012), Valdez has been turning heads since his pro debut in Nov. ’12.
HBO viewers were offered a glimpse of his talents last November. Valdez appeared on an HBO Latino-televised card, stopping Alberto Garza in seven rounds. The bout came on the heels of his lone distance fight—an eight-round decision over Juan Ruiz last July—having since scored three straight knockouts.
The 24-year old from bordertown Nogales, Mexico—just south of the Arizona state line—is coming off of a third round stoppage of Jose Ramirez—best known as “the 29-fight veteran” opponent tabbed to face Vasyl Lomachenko in his pro debut two fights prior.
Tamayo (25-5-4, 17KOs) is an eight-year ring veteran who hails from Ciuadad Obregon, the same city that produced two-division titlist Orlando Salido.
A hometown is all the two share, as the talent level drops considerably by the time you get to Tamayo. The southpaw hasn’t fought since a 5th round knockout loss to featherweight titlist Jesus Cuellar last December. Also gracing his resume, however, is the occasional upset. The fight leading to his title shot was an eight-round decision win over respectable Efrain Esquivias last April, his last victory to date.
The co-feature bout was confirmed as a done deal by end of business day Thursday. It comes a few days after Arum alleged in an interview with FightHubTV.com earlier this week that two suggested opponents from Top Rank matchmakers were rejected by HBO’s Peter Nelson.
Of the belief that Valdez was relegated to the non-televised portion of the undercard, Arum threatened to begin shopping around his fighters in lieu of allowing HBO—specifically Nelson—to play matchmaker with Top Rank’s vast stable of talent.
Such claims mirror a move the Hall of Fame promoter made in 2011, taking the bulk of his fighters—including Manny Pacquiao and Miguel Cotto—across the street to Showtime until sweeping changes were made. The move eventually led to the forced resignation of Ross Greenburg, paving the way for Ken Herschman—at the time, head of Showtime Sports—to assume the vacant role. Nelson has since playing a prominent role in the rebranding of the network’s boxing programming.
For now, it appears that all is well between network and promoter, although of course that could change with the next idea HBO allegedly rejects (since this fight was never rejected despite Arum's rant).
While not the greatest matchup to ever grace the pay-cable network, the showcasing of Valdez will come in the 1,000th fight HBO has televised since getting into the boxing business more than 30 years ago.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox