Oscar Valdez to face Andoni Gago in Jan. 12th return

Valdez will be making the sixth defense of his WBO title

Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Oscar Valdez, out of the ring since last March, has an opponent for his January 12th return on ESPN.

The event does not yet have an undercard.

Gago (20-3-3, 6 KO) lost his two biggest fights to date, dropping a decision to Viorel Simion in 2016 and suffering a ninth-round TKO loss to Lee Selby five months later. BoxRec has him 69th in the division and the WBO has him at #14 in its rankings.

So, yeah, Valdez (24-0, 19 KO) isn’t jumping right back into the fire. It’s definitely understandable, though; he’s been in three consecutive wars with Miguel Marriaga, Genesis Servania, and Scott Quigg, the last of whom busted Valdez’s jaw. I can forgive a tuneup, although I do hope he’s serious about challenging the winner of Josh Warrington vs. Carl Frampton in a WBO/IBF unifier sometime next year. That there would be some fine biffing, I tell you what.