Oscar Valdez/Photo courtesy of Top Rank Inc.
Oscar Valdez, a highly touted featherweight out of Mexico, is now a world champion after knocking out Matias Rueda of Argentina at 2:18 of the second round to win the title recently vacated by Vasyl Lomachenko.
The bout was the semi-main event to the junior welterweight title-unification fight between Viktor Postol and Terence Crawford won by Crawford via wide decision.
Valdez (20-0, 18 KOs) came out swinging and laid some serious leather on Rueda (26-1) in the first round. Valdez then decked Rueda with an absolutely vicious left hook to the body in the second round, Rueda tasting the canvas after a second delay.
Rueda rose at about nine seconds, but Valdez was on him again and landed several shots to the head before again decking Rueda with a body shot. The bout was waved off right then and Valdez ran around the ring in celebration.
“The best day of my life,” Valdez said. “It’s what my father and I have dreamed of since I started boxing.”
Rueda was simply overmatched, his record coming in notwithstanding.
“He caught me with a good (punch) in the second round and that was it,” Rueda said. “I could never recover from that.”