Miguel Berchelt 130 lbs vs. Oscar Valdez 130 lbs – Weigh-in results

By Boxing News - 02/19/2021 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose: WBC super featherweight champion Miguel Berchelt and challenger Oscar Valdez both weighed in at 130-lbs on Friday during their weigh-in for Saturday’s huge title fight on ESPN in ‘The Bubble’ at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Fight fans outside the US can watch the fight LIVE on FITE TV (click here).

(Photo Credit: Mikey Williams/Top Rank via Getty Images)

This is a fight that matches the physical size and power of WBC champion ‘El Alacran’ Berchelt (37-1, 33 KOs) against the intellect and boxing skills of the former WBO featherweight champion Valdez (28-0, 22 KOs).

In the run-up to this fight, the two-time Olympian Valdez hasn’t been given a lot of credit for being a big puncher in his own right. He’s got the power that isn’t far off from Berchelt.

Perhaps the reason why the bettors are favoring Berchelt because Valdez has been hurt in several of his fights since 2017, and he’s been on the deck.

Berchelt vs. Valdez a throwback fight

“There’s been a lot of Mexican fights that I’ve done, but this one reminds me most of [Erik] Morales and [Marco Antonio] Barrera, particularly the first fight,” said Bob Arum to the Pug and Copp Boxing Show in talking about the Berchelt vs. Valdez match.

Image: Miguel Berchelt 130 lbs vs. Oscar Valdez 130 lbs - Weigh-in results

“That was the most incredible fight,” Arum said of the Morales vs. Barrera fight. “I remember it like it was yesterday.

“One guy would punch the hell out of the other, push him from one end of the ring to the other, and you would think the referee is going to jump in and stop the fight.

“And then the guy that was getting pummeled would pull himself together and start beating the hell out of the other guy—what a great, great fight.

“That was one of my all-time favorite fights. And you know who was on the undercard? [Antonio] Margarito against Sergio Martinez. Can you believe that?

“Yeah, Margarito beat him. Margarito, almost every fight he had was incredible. I mean, he was a real gutty guy.

“He wasn’t the most skillful fighter but certainly the bravest. Mexico against Mexico in fighters, it brings out the passion and desire in both of them.

“When a Mexican fighter faces a fighter from a different ethnic group or even a Mexican fighter against a Mexican American, they want to win, and they fight like hell, but it’s not the same kind of machismo as when they’re fighting each other, particularly when they’re elite level,” Arum said.

Berchelt vs. Valdez is definitely a throwback type of fight that is similar to the clashes a long time ago.

Valdez just wants to beat Berchelt

“Someone asked me, ‘What’s next for the winner?’ I said, ‘Look at it from the standpoint of the two fighters, but for the two fighters, there’s no, what’s next?” said Arum.

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“The guy that wins goes with his chest puffed out to Guadalajara; he’s number one. The guy that loses is only hoping to get a rematch in the future.’

“People that were watching it [Morales vs. Barrera] were getting heart attacks because that fight as I remember it, it went back and forth.

“Morales is pounding the hell out of Barrera, and suddenly Barrera pulls himself together and starts pounding.

“It wasn’t where each guy was throwing punches at the same time. They took turns. What a great fight. If this fight [Berchelt vs. Oscar Valdez] comes anywhere close, no less exceeds it, it will be a classic for our time.

“If you presented it to Oscar, who I know really well, he would shrug it off,” said Arum about Valdez not having accomplished anything big yet.

“For him, beating Berchelt, he doesn’t care about pound-for-pound. He doesn’t care about the acclaim of you or anybody else. He just wants to beat Berchelt so he can pump his chest out,” Arum said.

It’s good that Valdez doesn’t care about the fans, the odds-makers, and the media choosing against him.

Some fighters would get discouraged with everyone picking against them, but not Valdez. He’s stayed motivated because he knows what he can do.

Valdez has an amazing intellect

“To some extent, it is [the brain of Valdez against the brawn of Berchelt] because it Berchelt has the physical advantages,” Arum continued.

Image: Miguel Berchelt 130 lbs vs. Oscar Valdez 130 lbs - Weigh-in results

“As you said, he’s the bigger guy, has the bigger reach, and punches harder, I think.

“But Valdez punches pretty hard himself and has an amazing boxing intellect, which unfortunately for him, even though he’s won all his fights, he doesn’t use all the time because sometimes he forgets himself and he likes to revert to what he likes to do best, which is to brawl.

“I think Eddy Reynoso, his great trainer, will rein him in and have him fight a more intelligent fight.

“Oscar is one of the most courageous guys in the ring that I’ve come across.

“He’s a guy that refuses to lose. Can you imagine getting your jaw broken in the fifth round against a guy [Scott Quigg] that missed weight, so he outweighs you by a lot, and you go toe-to-toe with him, and you beat the hell out of him, and you win a unification decision,” said Arum about Oscar Valdez’s clash against Scott Quigg in 2018.

“That tells you all you need to know about Oscar Valdez,” said Arum.

Valdez’s fight against Scott Quigg showed how well he can box when he needs to. Earlier in that contest, Valdez suffered a broken jaw, which kept him from closing his mouth due to the blood leaking out.

Valdez boxed Quigg from the time of his injury in the fifth until the end of the fight in the twelfth. It was pretty impressive stuff from Valdez.

He didn’t just box, through. Valdez was doing a lot of boxing despite the injury, and he did a lot of damage to Quigg’s face.

Arum disagrees with the odds

“Berchelt is a 3 to 1 favorite, maybe a little bit more, but for value for money, the bet should be on Valdez,” said Arum. “It shouldn’t be 3 to 1, but that’s my personal opinion.

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“Secondly, I think either Berchelt or Valdez, in with Shakur Stevenson, would be a classic.

“But with the way Shakur is going, it would be hard for anyone to beat him. Yeah, Zanfer is his [Berchelt] promoter and we do a deal with Zanfer, which is Fernando Bertran’s company and he’s family with Todd duBoef, and that’s true; we do a fight by fight with Zanfer on Berchelt.

“But again, if he wins, we’ll deliver big fights for him, and there will be no fight bigger, in my opinion, than Berchelt and Shakur, and that would be a major pay-per-view fight.

“No, I’m not saying I’m hoping because if you had to bet with the odds, you’d bet Valdez,” said Arum.

The oddsmakers know what they’re doing in placing Berchelt as a 3 to 1 favorite because Valdez is the smaller guy, and he’s been hurt by lesser punchers than Berchelt.

Valdez says he doesn’t mind being the underdog, and he’s going to use it as motivation to get him to fight harder to show everyone how wrong they are. Still, Valdez has got a tough task ahead of him on Saturday trying to defeat Berchelt.

Other weights on Saturday’s Berchelt vs. Valdez card:

  • Gabriel Flores Jr. 132 lbs vs. Jayson Velez 132 lbs
  • Esquiva Falcao 162 lbs vs. Artur Akavov 161.5 lbs
  • Elvis Rodriguez 143 lbs vs. Luis Alberto Veron 142 lbs
  • Xander Zayas 146 lbs vs. James Martin 146 lbs
  • Sonny Conto 221.5 lbs vs. Waldo Cortes 255.5 lbs
  • Javier Martinez 161 lbs vs. Billy Wagner 160 lbs
  • Omar Rosario 140 lbs vs. Uriel Villanueva 141 lbs