Evgeny Gradovich vs. Oscar Valdez possible for Pacquiao-Bradley 3 card

By Boxing News - 01/13/2016 - Comments

By Chris Williams: Top Rank promoter Bob Arum is looking to beef up the Manny Pacquiao vs. Tim Bradley 3 fight card with a lot of Hispanic talent in what appears to be a way of attracting fans to purchase the card on HBO pay-per-view. One fight in particular that Arum is working on finalizing is a fight between two-time Mexican Olympian Oscar Valdez (18-0, 16 KOs) and former IBF featherweight champion Evgeny Gradovich (21-1-1, 9 KOs) in what would be a 10 round fight.

Gradovich, 29, recently lost his IBF title last year in losing to Britain’s Lee Selby by an 8th round technical decision in May 2015. Gradovich has since won his last two fights in beating Aldimir Sliva Santos and Jesus Galicia.

“I’m trying to finalize that fight,” Arum said to ESPN.com about the Gradovich vs. Valdez fight. “I’d like to get it done by the end of the week so we can announce it on Tuesday at the press conference in L.A. This undercard is going to highlight young Hispanic fighters that we have high hopes for,” Arum said.

Valdez, 25, would be taking a big step up in facing Gradovich in this fight, but obviously, Arum believes he’s capable of winning the fight because otherwise he wouldn’t be making the fight. It’s in Arum’s best interest if Valdez wins, because he’s the guys with more star potential than Gradovich at this point. Gradovich barely beat journeyman Galicia this month in squeaking by with a 10 round majority decision. Valdez is a good fighter, but he was beaten at the highest levels all throughout his amateur career. Valdez did well until he got to the top each time. Vasyl Lomachenko easily beat Valdez in the amateurs in a one-sided 12-1 score. In the pros, it might be even worse.

There is no word if Arum will look to add 147lb contender Jessie Vargas or WBA interim light welterweight Jessie Benavidez to the card. Arum is trying to get unbeaten #1 WBO Gilberto “Zurdo” Ramirez (33-0, 24 KOs) vs. WBO super middleweight champion Arthur Abraham for the co-feature bout. Arum’s endeavors to accomplish that suffered a setback earlier Wednesday when Top Rank lost the purse bid to Abraham’s promoters at Sauerland Events.

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Arum is still hoping to try and stage the fight on the Pacquiao-Bradley 3 card. I am not sure why Sauerland would want to help Arum out in this, because they spent over $1.5 million in winning the purse bid. It would seem self-defeating for Sauerland to turn around now and help Arum out by staging the Abraham-Ramirez fight in the United States in Las Vegas, Nevada rather than in Berlin, Germany, where they will be able to pack many German fans in to see the fight.

It might require for Arum to bring out his big guns if he wants to attract fans to the Pacquiao-Bradley 3 card. Arum needs to think about adding WBO light welterweight champion Terence Crawford to the card, Felix Verdejo and maybe Lomachenko as well. It’s too bad Arum isn’t interested in matching Valdez against Lomachenko, because that would be a far more interesting fight than watching Valdez face the easy to hit Gradovich.



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