Oscar Valdez 29-0 (23) lifted the WBC super featherweight title from Miguel ‘El Alacran’ Berchelt 38-2 (34) and proved all his doubters wrong with a dominant performance culminating in a single punch left hook knockout in the 10th round at ‘The Bubble’ at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada o Saturday night.
The all-Mexican showdown was being touted as a contest to rival the competitive bouts between Marco Antonio Barrera and Erik Morales or Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez, but in reality it took the form of a fairly one-sided beating.
The 30-year-old Valdez, who vacated his WBO featherweight title to move up in weight less than two years ago, was clearly the smaller man in the ring but used his size to his advantage as he moved around the ring behind his jab and created a small target for the reigning champion over the first three rounds, pot-shotting from the outside.
The strategy was remarkably effective and paid clear dividends in the fourth when a left hook stunned Berchelt and the follow-up salvo from Valdez sent him crashing into the ropes. Referee Russell Mora correctly called it a knockdown and applied the mandatory eight count.
With half a round to go Berchelt, 29, staggered around the ring like the drunkest man at the party while Valdez desperately tried to close the show. One of the great mysteries of the night was how Berchelt survived the round.
Valdez kept up the pressure in the fifth but later in the round Berchelt seemed to get his wits about him and landed a few good shots. The sixth was Berchelt’s best of the fight and he had another decent stanza in the seventh.
But try as he might to punch his way out of trouble, Valdez was always a step ahead. His punching was sharper and more effective while Berchelt struggled to cut off the ring. By this stage of the fight Valdez was switching fluidly from orthodox to southpaw, further confounding Berchelt as he landed power shots from all angles to drop him again in the ninth.
The carnage ended late in the 10th when Berchelt ploughed after Valdez only to walk smack-bang into another left hook. This one knocked him out cold and he fell face first to the canvas. Think Manny Pacquaio in his fourth fight with Juan Manuel Marquez. It was that kind of brutal.
Two-time Olympian Valdez entered the fight a sizeable underdog but he sure didn’t fight like one.
“There’s nothing better in life than proving people wrong,” said Valdez, who was leading the fight 89-80, 88-81 and 87-82 at the time of the stoppage. “I have a list of people who doubted me. My idols doubted me. Boxing analysts doubted me. They said Berchelt was going to knock me out. I have a message to everybody: Don’t let anyone tell you what you can and can’t do.”
Trainer Eddy Reynoso said the plan was always for Valdez to use his speed to set up his dangerous left hooks and not to let Berchelt work inside.
“Berchelt is very dangerous when he’s close to you so the strategy was to tie him up when he got inside,” Reynoso said.
Promoter Bob Arum added to the praise.
“He was absolutely brilliant,” the Top Rank chairman said. “He fought his entire career for us and that was the best he’s ever looked.”
On the undercard undefeated super featherweight Gabriel Flores Jr 20-0 (7) from Las Vegas, Nevada by way of Stockton, California proved to fresh for Puerto Rican veteran Jayson Velez 29-8-1 (21) stopping him in the sixth round of their scheduled 10-round contest. A left hook high on the head from the 20-year-old Flores discombobulated Velez and sent him down for a mandatory eight-count. A follow-up hook to the jaw dropped him again and referee Tony Weeks decided he had seen enough, waving off the contest at the 1:47 mark.
World-rated middleweight Esquiva Falcao 28-0 (20) of Brazil needed just four rounds to breakdown firmer two-time world title challenger Artur Akavov 20-4 (9) of Russia in their 10-round all-southpaw showdown. Akavov’s corner retired him between the fourth and fifth rounds.
Rising junior welterweight prospect Elvis ‘The Dominican Kid’ Rodriguez 11-0-1 (10) was taken the distance for the first time in his career by the capable Luis Veron 18-3-2 (9) of Argentina, winning an eight-round unanimous decision by scores of 78-74 and 79-73 twice.