Miguel Berchelt is somewhere in Mexico licking his chops.
Oscar Valdez did what he was supposed to do against Jayson Velez on Tuesday inside the bubble at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, which was to defeat Velez to set up a showdown with Berchelt, a 130-pound titleholder.
The problem was the way Valdez did it. The former 126-pound champion struggled to take control of the fight much of the way, although he put together enough power shots to put Velez away with 37 seconds remaining the 10th and final round.
Valdez graded himself a 7 out of 10, which might’ve been generous to himself, but he gave an honest assessment of his performance.
“In boxing, you never stop learning,” said Valdez, whose trainer is Eddy Reynoso. “… I do feel I’m improving in the gym. I still have to prove it inside the ring. I give myself a seven. I wasn’t all that great due to the long period of time resting.
“I’m ready to go back to the gym and keep on working because I want to conquer my dream of becoming a WBC world titlist.”
Valdez (28-0, 22 KOs) was coming off a seventh-round stoppage of late replacement Adam Lopez in his first fight at 130 pounds in November. Lopez put Valdez down and generally gave him a harder time than expected, which raised questions about him.
The native of Mexico probably didn’t answer them on Tuesday night. His strategy was to throw almost exclusively big punches while fighting defensively at the same time, which wasn’t particularly effective early in the fight.
Valdez landed a few good shots but Velez, a seasoned former title challenger from Puerto Rico, took the blows and worked hard to make the fight competitive. Velez was holding his own through four rounds.
Velez (29-7-1, 21 KOs) went down from a left hook in Round 5, which seemed to be a moment in which Valdez had finally taken charge. However, even after that setback, Velez continued to press forward and make Valdez’s life difficult.
Ultimately, Velez’s defense – or lack thereof – was his undoing. He was simply too easy to hit, which took a toll on him in the final round. Valdez put him down a second time with another left hook. Then, after he got to his feet, a right and a few more punches sent him to the canvas one more time and the fight was stopped.
Valdez salvaged a so-so performance by becoming the first to knock out Velez and apparently clinch his title shot in the process. However, a meeting with Berchelt, one of the most-feared men in boxing, would seem to be a significant challenge for the man who had his hand raised Tuesday.
“I got a lot to learn, a lot to improve on,” Valdez said. “Berchelt is a great warrior, a great champion. I have a lot of respect him. But I’m hungry, hungry to become a world champion again. He has something everybody wants, the WBC title. That’s my aim right now.
“… I definitely want that fight. The fans want it. I think they’ll enjoy two Mexicans in the ring. There definitely is going to be fireworks.”
In preliminaries, junior welterweight prospect Elvis Rodriguez (8-0-1, 8 KOs) of the Dominican Republic stopped Dennis Okoth (4-4-1, 2 KOs) of Kenya with a paralyzing straight left to the jaw at 2:33 of the second round of a scheduled six-rounder.
Okoth fell flat on his back and was hurt so badly by the shot that referee Tony Weeks didn’t even bother to count.
And Kim Clavel (12-0, 2 KOs) of Montreal outworked Natalie Gonzalez (6-1, 1 KOs) of New Rochelle, New York, to win a shutout decision in a spirited eight-round flyweight bout. All three cards were 80-82.
Clavel won the 2020 Pat Tillman Award for Service at the ESPYs. She took time off from boxing to work as a nurse in elder care facilities, which have been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic.