Oscar Valdez got the result to go his way tonight in an impressive performance for the young WBO featherweight world champion.
In truth, Valdez was just simply too good for his opponent Hiroshige Osawa.
25 year old Mexican world champion Valdez started round 1 in solid fashion, but came into his own a bit more in the second when he hurt Osawa on the ropes.
Osawa showed a really good chin to ship some serious punishment in the third – between stiff jabs and hard right hands landed from Valdez.
Valdez dropped Osawa in the fourth and followed up with some massive overhand right bombs, which somehow Osawa managed to weather until the end of the round.
Osawa looked in a lot of pain by the end of round 5 from really hurtful shots that Valdez had sunk into the body.
Valdez switched to southpaw for a lot of the sixth round and boxed on the back foot, easily sticking and moving around his outmatched foe.
Oscar Valdez trapped Osawa onto the ropes in the seventh and poured on a massive onslaught of combinations that his opponent had no answer for, leaving the referee no choice but to stop the match.
The win improved Valdez’s record to 21-0 (19KO). Some big fights in 2017 could await the Mexican world champion now.
One I’d love to see would be a unification with Carl Frampton, provided the Belfast man comes through an extremely tough rematch against Leo Santa Cruz in January.
For the preliminary undercard video footage of tonight’s action in Vegas check it out here.
