By Allan Fox: #1 WBO Oscar Valdez (19-0, 17 KOs) and #2 WBO Matias Carlos Adrian Rueda (26-0, 23 KOs) will be fighting it out this Saturday night for the vacant WBO World featherweight title in the co-feature bout on the Terence Crawford vs. Viktor Postol card on HBO pay-per-view at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada. This is the 25-year-old Valdez’s moment in the sun to shine after four years as a pro. Valdez’s promoters at Top Rank haven’t thrown him in with the dangerous guys like Vasyl Lomachenko, Nicholas Walters and Gary Russell Jr.
Valdez has competed in the Olympics twice in taking part in 2008 and 2012. He was eliminated both times by superior fighters. As a pro, Valdez has found things a lot easier, as he’s not been matched against the high quality fighters as of yet. Valdez did defeat former IBF featherweight champion Evgeny Gradovich by a 4th round knockout last April. However, Gradovich hasn’t been the same fighter since fighting to a 12 round draw against Jayson Velez in November 2014. Beating Gradovich now isn’t such a big deal because his career has really tanked in the last two years.
By Dan Ambrose: Former IBF featherweight champion Evgeny Gradovich’s struggles continue, as he was halted in the 4th round on Saturday night by unbeaten Olympian featherweight Oscar Valdez (19-0, 17 KOs) on HBO PPV on the undercard of Manny Pacquiao vs. Tim Bradley at at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
By Jim Dower: Undefeated #3 WBO, #12 IBF, #13 WBA super middleweight contender Jesse Hart (18-0, 15 KOs) battered and beat journeyman Aaron Pryor Jr (19-9-1, 12 KOs) in stopping him in the 9th round on Friday night to retain his USBA and WBO NABO super middleweight titles at the Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.