By Jeff Aranow: Showing the same chin problems, he had in his previous fight, WBO World featherweight champion Oscar Valdez (23-0, 19 KOs) had to get up off the canvas to defeat #4 WBO rated Genesis Servania (29-1, 12 KOs) by an unimpressive 12 round unanimous decision on Friday night on ESPN Boxing from the Tucson Convention Center in Tucson, Arizona.
Servania, 26, knocked Valdez to the canvas in round 5 with a right hand to the head. Valdez, 26, tried to brush it off that he wasn’t hurt, but he clearly was. Servania had hurt Valdez. While Valdez came back to knock Servania down in the 5th round with a big left hook, he still was vulnerable.
In round 6, Servania hurt Valdez with a right hand late in the round. Servania then flurried on Valdez as the round ended. There’s no telling what would have happened had there been a little bit more time left in the round. My guess is Valdez would have been knocked out.
After the 6th, Valdez took over the fight, as Servania stopped letting his hands go enough to stay in the fight. Valdez was making sure to grab Servania in a clinch each time he would come forward throwing punches. Valdez would let Servania throw one punch before grabbing him in a clinch. Servania wasn’t schooled in how to fight out of a clinch, so he would just give up and wait for the referee to separate him from the Valdez.
The fight was one-sided from rounds 8-12, as Valdez would come forward loading up on power shots with both hands, and jabbing. Servania was waiting too long to let his hands go, and he was getting hit quite frequently.
Servania, 26, was catching Valdez with hard shots when he would come forward swinging for the fences. It was lucky for Valdez that Servania isn’t a big puncher. The shots that Servania was caching Valdez with would have been knockout blows if they were thrown by one of the harder punchers in the featherweight division like Scott Quigg, Leo Santa Cruz or Kiko Martinez. Servania took a lot of punishment in the fight, but he stayed calm and level headed under fire. Valdez constantly hitting Servania with shots all throughout the fight, but he took them well. Valdez’s punching form really breaks down when he loads up on his shots. He doesn’t hit with the knuckle part of his gloves a lot of the time, and he’s trying too hard.
Valdez was loading up on everything he threw. He would wind up and throw with maximum power, but he didn’t look very powerful though. Valdez is not a huge puncher despite his high knockout percentage. The reason why Valdez has so many KOs on his resume is because he’s been put in with a lot of poor opposition by his promoters at Top Rank. Very few of them have had any boxing skills. They were just record padding opposition until recently when Top Rank stepped it up a little in putting Valdez in with Miguel Marriaga on April 22. Valdez looked very shaky in winning a 12 round unanimous decision after getting hurt a number of times by Marriaga.
All in all, it was not a good performance from Valdez. He looked like he was hurt every time that Servania would hit him with a solid shot. Valdez DOES NOT have good punch resistance. If the shoe was on the other foot, and it was Servania that landed the amount of shots that Valdez did tonight, we probably would have seen Valdez knocked out by round 3. He just does not take a shot very well. I saw that in Valdez’s last fight against Miguel Marriaga. Valdez was hurt a couple of times in that fight. It’s unclear whether Marriaga decreased Valdez’s punch resistance with the huge shots that he was landing in that fight or if he simply never did have a great chin. My guess is Marriaga might have shook something loose with Valdez, causing him now to be vulnerable to almost anything that hits him now. The thing is, Servania was not a big puncher. He was a relatively light puncher with good hand speed and combination punching. The fact that Valdez was having problems with Servania’s power doesn’t bode well for his future.
Valdez’s promoter Bob Arum of Top Rank wants to turn him into a big boxing star in the sport. But after the way Valdez looked tonight against Servania and against Marriaga last April, I don’t see him becoming a star. For Valdez to become a star, he’s going to need to be able to beat the other top featherweights in the division like Carl Frampton, Scott Quigg, Gary Russell Jr., Joseph Diaz Jr., Leo Santa Cruz and Abner Mares. I can’t see Valdez beating any of those guys. I think they all KO Valdez. Even former Top Rank fighter Guillermo Rigondeaux would have his way with Valdez if those guys ever fought. I don’t think for a second that Top Rank will allow Rigondeaux anywhere near Valdez. Top Rank will likely protect Valdez from the good fighters and keep picking out guys that they know he can beat like Servania and the other lighter punchers in the featherweight division. You can’t blame Top Rank for wanting turn Valdez into a star. Unfortunately, he just doesn’t have the chin or the massive punching power needed for him to get to the next level in my view.
This was a voluntary defense for Valdez tonight. His No1 contender right now is Joseph Diaz Jr. It’s going to be interesting to see if Top Rank tries to stall that fight out, as Diaz Jr. is not one of their fighters. Valdez might lose to Diaz Jr. If that happens, Top Rank will lose the WBO title that Valdez holds while at the same time they’ll lose one of their stars. Valdez’s career will likely plummet if he gets beaten by Diaz Jr. If Valdez can’t beat Diaz, then he’ll never beat the likes of Frampton, Gary Russell Jr., Quigg, Mares or Santa Cruz. I don’t see Top Rank ever doing business with the promoters for those fighters to make a fight between them and Valdez. I do think Valdez would beat IBF champion Lee Selby, but that’s one of the rare guys at the top of the featherweight division I can see him beating.