BOB ARUM will explain his rationale for wanting Oscar Valdez to retire when he meets with the two-division champion and Valdez’s career-long manager, Frank Espinoza, next month at Top Rank’s office in Las Vegas.
Arum, after watching Valdez absorb another beating at the hands of rival Emanuel Navarrete from his front-row seat Saturday night, believes Valdez should become a trainer. The former WBO featherweight and WBC super featherweight champion will turn 34 on December 22 and, according to his 93-year-old promoter, has invested his money wisely, well enough to stop putting himself through the rigors of taxing training camps and damaging fights if he were to continue boxing top 130-pound opponents.
“Speaking for myself,” Arum told Boxing News, “because I like the kid so much, I think enough is enough.”
The two-time Mexican Olympian was competitive at times versus Navarrete and impressive in his previous appearance, a seventh-round knockout of Australian contender Liam Wilson (14-3, 8 KOs) on March 29. He thus could reasonably argue that he should fight again in 2025.
At what cost, of course, is the question Arum doesn’t want answered.
Valdez’s face was a swollen, marked mess following his first fight versus Navarrete, a lopsided points loss in August 2023 at Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, California. Suffering his first knockout defeat on Saturday night at least spared Valdez unnecessary punishment for six-plus additional rounds in their main event at Footprint Center in Phoenix.
Make no mistake, though, the heavy-handed Navarrete (39-2-1, 32 KOs) brutalized Valdez with punishing punches to the head and body on the WBO junior lightweight champion’s way to a sixth-round knockout victory.
A perfectly timed counter left to Valdez’s body dropped him for the third time. Valdez (32-3, 24 KOs) couldn’t beat referee Raul Caiz Jr.’s count and was declared the loser at 2:42 of the sixth round.
Six-and-a-half years earlier, the ever-brave Valdez fought seven-plus rounds against England’s Scott Quigg with a broken jaw. Valdez bled badly from his mouth during the second half of the Quigg fight, yet he still won a 12-round unanimous decision in March 2018 at StubHub Center in Carson, California.
Those three aforementioned fights, a one-sided points loss to three-division champion Shakur Stevenson (22-0, 10 KOs) in April 2022 and other grueling bouts have made Arum determine that it’s time for Valdez to start enjoying the next phase of his life.
“I think that he’s such a nice young man,” Arum explained, “and he’s really so articulate, because he speaks perfect English as well as perfect Spanish, I think he should consider becoming a trainer. Because, I mean, his style is such that he takes a tremendous number of punches in every fight because he’s so aggressive.”
Arum also pointed out that Valdez “hasn’t pissed his money away,” which should help the Nogales native more comfortably transition into his life after boxing without taking another punch.
“You know, it was my birthday,” Arum said regarding Saturday night. “I had my family there, so I didn’t get to hang around with him after the fight. I haven’t talked to him yet. After the first of the year, after I get back from this whirlwind trip I’m about to take – Riyadh, Japan and I’m visiting friends in Phuket, Thailand – when I come back I’m gonna have a meeting with him and Frank Espinoza, and we’ll look at his future options.”
