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Andreas Hale
Former two-division champion Oscar Valdez won a tougher than expected unanimous decision over Richard Medina in a 10-round featherweight bout Saturday at Domo Binacional in his hometown of Nogales, Mexico.
It was Valdez’s return to action after being stopped in the sixth round by Emanuel Navarrete for the WBC junior lightweight title in December.
The scores of 100-90, 98-92 and 97-93 were wide for a fight that saw Medina (16-4, 9 KOs) remain on his front foot with pressure as Valdez (33-3, 24 KOs) fought off his advances but was unable to hurt his hard-charging opponent.
Valdez, 34, started off strong, wrapping hooks around Medina’s gloves and popping a jab to keep “El Castogo” from swarming him on the inside. However, Valdez found that his opponent had a durable chin and refused to back down.
By the middle rounds, Medina had gained momentum and broke through with his onslaught of punches. Valdez found himself on the wrong end of several exchanges and appeared to fade as he was unable to keep Medina from rumbling his way inside.
Valdez regained momentum in Round 8 and slammed looping hooks into Medina’s face, knocking out his mouthguard in the process. But Medina, 24, was never in danger and continued to roll forward, absorbing punches just to land a few of his own.
It was clear that Valdez, a former featherweight and super featherweight titleholder, had lost some speed on his fastball against an opponent he would have routed several years ago. But he showed the heart of a champion late and closed out strong to get back into the win column.
Valdez has now alternated between wins and losses in his five fights since dropping a wide decision to Shakur Stevenson in 2022.