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Oscar Valdez may not, in fact, return to the ring on January 12th. ESPN reports that there is a “possibility” that the event, slated to take place in Valdez’s native Tucson, Arizona, has been scrapped in favor of Valdez appearing on the February 2nd Eleider Alvarez-Sergey Kovalev II card in Frisco, Texas.
If this does wind up being the case, it would be Valdez’s (24-0, 19 KO) sixth fight in Texas and his first since a 2015 knockout of Jose Ramirez (no, not that one) in Laredo.
The original plan was for Valdez to take a tune-up in January and then fight the winner of this weekend’s Josh Warrington-Carl Frampton fight in an April unification match. Though putting Valdez on Alvarez-Kovalev II seems like a smart move from a promotional standpoint and gives Top Rank time to scrounge up a more credible tune-up foe, it does foul up the timeline a bit. Fingers crossed they still try to put that matchup together.
UPDATE: It’s official. Valdez will fight unbeaten Italian Carmine Tommasone.
The @trboxing ESPN card Feb. 2 in Frisco, Texas, will also include 126 titlist Oscar Valdez’s defense vs. Carmine Tommasone & Teofimo Lopez-TBA along with Alvarez-Kovalev 2 & Commey-Chaniev. Valdez and Commey fights air on ESPN followed by Alvarez-Kovalev 2 & Lopez live on ESPN+.
— Dan Rafael (@danrafaelespn) December 19, 2018