UPDATE: Oscar Valdez rebooked for February 2nd

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.