Oscar Valdez to face Andres Gutierrez on November 30th

Oscar Valdez’s November 30th super featherweight debut will come against former world title challenger Andres Gutierrez, whom he’ll face in Las Vegas in an ESPN+ headliner.

Unfortunately, it looks as though the co-feature between Carl Frampton and Isaac Dogboe might be off. “Royal Storm” reportedly suffered a “little” ankle injury while running earlier this week.

Gutierrez (38-2-1, 25 KO) is ranked in the WBC top 10 at 130 pounds, but has come up short in his most notable appearances. He dropped a majority decision to Cristian Mijares in 2016, then lost a wide technical decision to Abner Mares in a bid for the latter’s featherweight title. His two fights at 130 have seen him defeat Ramiro Blanco and past-it former super flyweight champ Tomas Rojas.

All-in-all, about what you’d expect for Valdez’s (26-0, 20 KO) divisional debut. He’s the #1 contender for both Miguel Berchelt and Jamel Herring, both of whom are part of the Top Rank stable, but it’s not surprising to see Top Rank easing him into the weight class before throwing him against one of them. At least this should give us an idea of whether Valdez’s power, which has been rather absent in recent fights, can re-assert itself once he’s not killing himself to make 126.