Stevenson vs. Valdez Preview
The WBO and WBC junior lightweight titles will be on the line Saturday April 30th in Las Vegas. WBO champion Shakur Stevenson will battle WBC champion Oscar Valdez in a unification bout.
Stevenson (17-0, 9 KO) is coming off a dynamic 10th round TKO victory over Jamel Herring to win the WBO title in October. The 24-year-old made his mark as a future threat to win world titles in multiple weight classes but will have his hands full on Saturday.
Stevenson is confident he will remain undefeated. “Skillfully, I think I’m the better fighter, a lot faster, quicker than him, and I think that’s going to hurt him in the long run when we fight,” said Stevenson.
Despite the confidence, Stevenson knows what kind of a challenge he will get from Valdez. “He’s going to get in there and realize this isn’t an easy task,” said Shakur. “Oscar Valdez is an undefeated fighter, and he’s going to try his hardest once he gets in that ring.”
Valdez is a former two weight world champion having also held the WBO featherweight title from 2016 to 2019. He won the WBC junior lightweight belt in February 2021 with a 10th round KO of Miguel Berchelt. He then defended in his last fight in September with a unanimous decision victory over Robson Conceicao.
Much of the attention heading into this fight with Stevenson has been Valdez’ positive drug test for the banned substance phentermine last September. The champion was still able to defend against Conceiacao after the Yaqui Tribe Athletic Commission ruled the positive test was not on the day of his fight.
Valdez responded, "I'm not a cheater. Never have been. Never needed it," Valdez said. "There's no easy way out for me, this is just hard work in the gym. Hours and hours of training. Lots of sacrifice. That's it. You come here, you train, you win fights in the gym. You go to a fight, you give it your best. That's the way I am. And there goes a lot of people saying, 'You're a cheater. You're using steroids. You came back positive.' It's just, it's heartbreaking for me.”
As far as his performance on Saturday the 31-year-old had this to say. “In a fight with Shakur, you never know [what may happen],” Valdez said. “But if we have to bang, we can bang. If we have to box, we can box. It depends on what he brings to the table.”
The title unification bout can be seen live on ESPN at 10:00pm ET.
