By Chris Williams: Scott Quigg (34-1-2, 25 KOs) says he’s looking forward to the challenge of facing unbeaten WBO World featherweight champion Oscar Valdez (23-0, 19 KOs) in their fight on March 10 at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
Quigg understands that he’s the underdog in this fight against the popular 27-year-old Valdez, but he still believes he’s going to deal him first defeat when the two of them battle it out.
Valdez-Quigg will be televised on ESPN on March 10th.
Top Rank is trying to transform the 2008 and 2012 Mexican Olympian Valdez into a big star in the U.S. It looked like they were going to succeed until Valdez’s last 2 fights against Genesis Servania and Miguel Marriaga. Valdez was hurt with head shots in both of those fights, and it’s now looking like it’s only a matter of time being he’s knocked out and dethroned by someone. Valdez’s shaky punch resistance could betray him against Quiigg, who you can bet is going to be head-hunting like crazy all night long on March 1th.
“These are the sort of fights I want to be involved in and with Oscar Valdez, I don’t think they come much bigger than that over here [America] and the featherweight division,” Quigg said to Sky Sports News.
Quigg has the punching power to finish the job that Servania and Marriaga started in their recent fights against Valdez. Servania knocked Valdez down in round 4. Valdez did come back to drop Servania in the 5th, but he spent the remainder of the fight running from him. Valdez fought like he didn’t trust his own chin. It was a bad look for Valdez to be running around the ring from a fighter with a 42% knockout percentage.
Servania is not a knockout puncher, and yet he had Valdez hurt and scared looking. You extrapolate from the performance to imagine what the much harder punching Quigg will do to Valdez, we could see a new champion on March 10th. Top Rank will need to find another 2-time Olympian they can try and build into a star, because it’s not going to be Valdez. Quigg is going to be trying to take Valdez apart all night. Quigg is a better puncher than both Servania and Marriaga. Valdez was hurt by both.
Quigg is trained by Freddie Roach in the U.S. Roach is a very good trainer when it comes to putting together offensive fight plans. Roach does an excellent job at training guys with aggressive fighting styles like Quigg and Manny Pacquiao. Roach likely has an excellent plan for Quigg to chase Valdez down if he must and knock him out. Before Valdez fought Marriaga, I would have never even thought that he would run from one of his opponents, but we saw in his last fight that he’s ready to run at the drop of the hat to escape pressure. It doesn’t look good seeing Valdez run from his opponents, but that’s what he did against Servania.
“He’s 23-0 with 19 knockouts and has not really put a foot wrong but these are the challenges I want and I, 100 per cent believe I will become world champion on March 10,” Quigg said.
Valdez built up his 23-0 record largely on facing fluff opposition. Marriaga and Servania are the best names on Valdez’s resume, and those guys aren’t in the league of the talented featherweights like Leo Santa Cruz, Gary Russell Jr., Abner Mares, Carl Frampton, Nonito Donaire, Jose Diaz and Lee Selby.
Marriaga and Servania are decent talents, but they’re not considered the best. It’s bad news for Top Rank that Valdez is getting stunned and dropped by the likes of Marriaga and Servania, because what’s going to happen when he gets inside the ring with the better fighters in the weight class?
Quigg almost beat Carl Frampton two years ago in February 2016 in losing a 12 round split decision. If not for a broken jaw Quigg suffered earlier in the fight, he probably would have beaten Frampton. Quigg has impressive wins over Kiko Martinez, Oleg Yefimovych, Viorel Simion, Jose Cayetano, Hidenori Otake and Stephane Jamoye. Quigg breezed through those guys as if they were journeyman instead of good fighters. Quigg would probably do the same thing to Servania and Marriaga if given the chance.
Valdez is going to have to change the way he fights if he doesn’t want to get knocked out by Quigg, because he’s made to order for him with his slugging style of fighting.
Quigg should be thinking knockout for this fight just in case. Valdez is the star here, and he’ll be fighting in front of a large group of his own boxing fans at the StubHub on March 10. If the fight goes to the scorecards, you’ve got to believe the judges will give it to Valdez. He’ll have all the cheering for him, and it could be a real mess when it comes to the reading of the scorecards. If Roach hasn’t already told Quigg what he’s up against in terms of the judging for the fight, then he needs to tell him now. It would be a shame if Quigg went into the fight on the night thinking he can win a decision, and then find out the hard way when the scores are announced that he never had a chance. Being a knockout artist really helps Quigg in this fight. With Quigg’s ability to score stoppages with his body and head shots, he can take the judges out of the fight. Quigg has knocked out 2 out of his last 3 opponents since his loss to Frampton. It’s a rare fighter that can go the full 12 rounds with Quigg. Only opponents have been able to go the full 12 rounds with Quigg in his last 9 fights.
Valdez is going to have a fight on his hands in Quigg. If he chooses to fight Quigg by brawling with him, he’s going to have a tough time. But I’m not sure that Valdez has good enough wheels to run from Quigg for 12 rounds without tiring and getting beaten into submission.