Oscar Valdez stops Carmine Tommasone – RESULTS

By Mike Smith

Boxingnews24.com

Coming off of a long 11-month layoff, World Boxing Organization featherweight champion Oscar Valdez (25-0, 20 KOs) destroyed the previously undefeated hapless #14 WBO fringe contender Carmine Tommasone (19-1, 5 KOs) by a seventh round knockout on Saturday night on ESPN/ESPN Deportes from The Ford Center at The Star, in Frisco, Texas.

Valdez knocked the the weak-punching 34-year-old Tommasone down four times in the fight before the contest was stopped in the 7th round by referee Mark Nelson. The official time of the stoppage was at 0:09 of round seven. Valdez knocked the Italian fighter Tommasone down twice in round 4, and once in rounds 6 and 7.

This was the 28-year-old Valdez’s first fight since suffering a broken jaw in his 12 round unanimous decision victory over former super bantamweight champion Scott Quigg last March. Tommasone, a weak puncher, was specifically picked out for Valdez to come back against rather than him being matched against another hard puncher.

Round 1 had little action, as Valdez wasn’t taking any chances of opening up with his offense and getting hit. He looked gun-shy, perhaps afraid to get hit the jaw and have it damaged again. Valdez had nothing to fear though, since Tommasone had zero power to worry him with. The shots that Tommasone did land were weak, and not nearly hard enough to cause Valdez to pause.

Valdez started getting more comfortable in the 2nd round. He was connecting with solid jabs that were snapping the head back of Tommasone. It was one-way traffic, being that Tommasone looked terrified of throwing anything that would lead to Valdez hitting him with a hard counter. Valdez looked good in the round, but he had nothing coming back at him like he in his previous fight against Quigg, who was putting hands on him.

In the third round, Valdez was having his way with the inept, gun-shy Tommasone, hitting him with solid punches to the head and body. Valdez looked like he was no longer afraid of getting hit. It looked like he wasn’t bothering in using his more careful safety-first style of fighting that he was supposedly going to be using to win without getting hit. In other words, Valdez had gone back to his old brawling style, and he could do this because Tommasone was afraid to let his hands go. Instead of using the fight as practice to try and become defensive, Valdez went back to his old style of fighting, and was battering the over-matched Tommasone

‏In round 4, Valdez sent Tommasone down twice. The Italian barely made it out of the round, as he was taking a beating.

In the 5th, Valdez dominated in effortless manner in hitting Tommasone with everything he thew. Valdez hardly missed a punch in the round. For his part, Tommasone continued to hold back with his shots in fighting in a pure survival mode, which was a bad idea. The punches that Tommasone did throw had nothing on them.

In the 6th round, Valdez hit Tommasone with hard shots that cut his right eye, causing it to swell. By the end of the round, Tommasone’s corner looked concerned with the punishment he was absorbing at the hands of Valdez. Valdez dropped Tommasone once again in the round.

In the 7th, Valdez knocked Tommasone down. The fight was stopped, giving Valdez his 20th knockout win over his career.

It was a good victory for Valdez against a game but limited fighter in Tommasone. It would be nice to see Valdez get in there with WBC champion Gary Russell Jr., WBA Super World champ Leo Santa Cruz or at the very least with highly ranked former WBO super bantamweight champion Jessie Magdaleno. Those guys would give Valdez something to think about.