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Valdez (25-0, 20 KO) sat out for almost 11 months after suffering a broken jaw against Scott Quigg in March of 2017, returning last month to bulldoze Carmine Tommasone on the Alvarez-Kovalev II undercard. As the article mentions, this snapped a three-fight knockout drought dating back to 2016.
As far as potential opponents, fellow champion Josh Warrington has a date with Kid Galahad on June 15th and Gary Russell Jr. is looking at a fight with Kiko Martinez on April 27th, though Leo Santa Cruz is currently free. His current WBO top five consists of, in order, Oleg Malynovskiy, Jessie Magdaleno, Joet Gonzalez, Christopher Diaz, and Carl Frampton.
Magdaleno and Diaz are currently booked, the former against Rico Ramos and the latter against #6 Shakur Stevenson.