Oscar Valdez vs. Scott Quigg close for Mar.10 on ESPN

Boxingnews24.com

By Chris Williams:

Eddie Hearn says he’s close to finalizing a fight between his fighter Scott Quigg and WBO featherweight champion Oscar Valdez for March 10 on ESPN. The fight card will be televised at 10:30 p.m. ET/7:30 p.m. PT.

It’s an ideal time for a boxing event to be televised on ESPN. Whether the boxing fans will tune in to watch the Valdez-Quigg fight remains to be seen.

The Valdez-Quigg fight is being talked about for the StubHub Center in Carson, California, according to Dan Rafael. That’s a venue where Valdez has fought several times in the past, and he’s drawn well there. Valdez can pack in the fans due to his popularity. I don’t know if the fans are going to help get Valdez past Quigg though. This is a nightmarish fight for Valdez.

There are certain guys in the featherweight division that are all wrong or Valdez, and Quigg is one of them. That’s obviously why Quigg’s promoter Hearn is so willing to make this fight. Hearn is a clever promoter. If you look at the fights that Hearn makes, his guys generally always win. The reason for that is Hearn is so careful with who he matches his fighters with. Right now, Hearn is chomping at the bit, working to finalize the Valdez-Quigg fight at warp speed. That has my spider sense telling me this is going to be BAD for Valdez. I hope for Top Rank’s sake that they remember to include a rematch clause in the contract for the Valdez vs. Quigg fight, considering they might need it.

Hearn is pretty excited about making this fight, as it would give his guy Quigg (34-1-2, 25 KOs) a very good chance of capturing the WBO 126 lb. title from a VERY vulnerable champion in Valdez (23-0, 19 KOs). The fight would also give the 29-yearold former WBA super bantamweight champion Quigg some much needed visibility in the U.S. Quigg hasn’t done much since losing his WBA 122lb. title o Carl Frampton by a 12 round split decision in a unification fight on February 27, 2016.

Valdez-Quigg being shown on ESPN is both a blessing a potential curse for the Top Rank promoted Valdez. if Quigg knock batters Valdez as much as many think he will, it could hurt his career. If a lot of U.S boxing fans see Valdez get exposed by Quigg, they won’t soon forget that image. Top Rank isn’t going to make the fans forget about Valdez getting knocked to oblivion by Quigg by feeding him more soft jobs like they’ve been doing most of his career. There aren’t any easy marks for Valdez to fight to go after a featherweight title if he loses to Quigg on March 10.

It would be career suicide if Top Rank elects to match Valdez back up with Quigg for a second fight if he gets handled by him on the 10th of March. I’d like to think Top Rank boss Bob Arum would have his thinking cap on when he makes a decision for where to take Valdez if he falls apart against Quigg. A rematch would be a bad idea if you’re Valdez.

I see the news breaking. Correct-we are close to finalizing a deal for Scott Quigg to face Oscar Valdez for the World title. Hopefully get it over the line. Will be an unbelievable fight! #andthenew @SkySportsBoxing @CarlMoretti 💥” said Hearn on Tuesday.

Quigg is from England, but he trains with American trainer Freddie Roach at his Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, California. That’ll make things easy for Quigg to go from Los Angeles to Carson, California for the fight with Valdez, as they’re right next door.

Quigg held the WBA super bantamweight title from 2013 to 2016. He lost the belt to Carl Frampton by a narrow 12 round split decision. it was a fight that Quigg could have won if he’d started out a little faster in pressuring Frampton. However, Quigg suffered a jaw injury early in the fight, and that caused him to fight with caution in the first half of the contest.

This will be Valdez’s 4th defense of his WBO 126 lb. title that he won lat year in July in beating Matias Carlos Adrian Rueda. In Valdez’s 3 defenses, he’s beaten Hiroshige Osawa, Miguel Marriaga and Genesis Servania.

2008 Olympian Valdez looked great after he turned pro for Top Rank in 2012 up until he met up with the big punching Colombian Miguel Marriaga last year April. Valdez won, but he was hurt in the later rounds of that fight.

Top Rank might end up being sorry if they make this fight. They’re the promoters for the 27-year-old Valdez, and I’m not sure they realize how good Quigg is. This would be a major test for Valdez, and the fight could be coming at the worst possible time with Valdez coming off of back to back bad efforts against Genesis Servania and Marriaga.

Valdez won both of those fights, but he was hurt a number of times in both fights. Valdez is starting to look like a fighter whose chin has been compromised, perhaps for good. Valdez is going to need to be able to take some major head shots for him to hang around long enough to defeat Quigg. Servania knocked Valdez down in the 4th round, and he seemed to hurt him on 2 other occasions in the fight. Valdez was forced to box Servania in the second half of the fight to win a 12 round decision.

On the undercard of the Valdez vs. Quigg fight, WBO super bantamweight champion Jessie Magdaleno will be defending his title against an opponent still to be determined. There’s a pretty good chance that Magdaleno could face either Cesar Juarez or Isaac Dogboe. Those two fighters are facing each other this Saturday night for the interim WBO super bantamweight title on January 6 at the Bukom Boxing Arena in Accra, Ghana.

Quigg has won his last 3 fights since losing to Frampton. Quigg has recently beaten Oleg Yefimovych by a 6th round knockout on November 4 in Monte Carlo, Monaco. Before that, Quigg defeated Viorel Simion and Jose Cayetano.

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