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November 5, 2016 Oscar Valdez vs. Hiroshige Osawa at Thomas & Mack Center, Las Vegas, Nevada for the WBO World featherweight title

Oscar Valdez stops Hiroshige Osawa in the seventh round to retain featherweight title

Unbeaten featherweight boxer Oscar Valdez on Saturday night managed to defend his WBO title from challenger Hiroshige Osawa. The two time Mexican Olympic champion outclassed Japan’s Hiroshige Osawa in the 1:50 minute of the seventh round to retain his WBO featherweight title which he had been out to defend for the very first time.

Boxing pundits had predicted that Osawa wouldn’t be much of a problem to Valdez and this rang true as the Mexican easily cruised to victory with a flurry of punches which saw his opponent come down twice.

The two boxers were taking on each other in an undercard of Manny Pacquiao vs Jessie Vargas event that took place Saturday night at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was a highly attended event that saw Pacquiao garner victory after months of absence from boxing rings. The Filipino star had retired from boxing in May in order to concentrate on his senatorial duties.

Back to the Valdez and Osawa fight, match statistics showed that Valdez had hurled a total of 191 punches against Osawa’s 35. This clearly is an evidence that the Mexican featherweight is a class or two above his Japanese opponent.Valdez’s power punches also totalled to 129 whereas those of his opponent were just 18.

Valdez controlling the game

When the first bell had sounded, Osawa had come up aggressively against Valdez. It was however only a matter of seconds before Valdez started charging forward with powerful punches. The Mexican’s punches grew even weightier as the fight progressed and had Osawa struggling at the ropes in the second round.

Valdez continued in his similar style of raining hard punches on his opponent in the third round. He was making boxing appear like a child’s play by the manner in which he stayed calm and aimed accurate shots at the Osaka born sportsman. Meanwhile, Osawa had been largely unable to counter Valdez’s punches or even come at him with jabs too.

Knockdown in the fourth round

In fourth round of the undercard match, Valdez dealt Osawa a vicious body shot that sent him landing on the canvas. He however managed to get back on his feet before the referee’s count elapsed. He however wasn’t in for any rest after getting back on his feet as Valdez continued boxing him to the ropes.

The fifth and sixth rounds didn’t offer much to write home about as neither of the boxers displayed any spectacular performance or even a notable struggle. It was in the seventh round that the fight turned into a battle worth watching again.

Valdez took Osawa to the ropes in the seventh round and continued to rain a series of answered body shots at him. The referee Vic Drakulich then stepped in at the 1:50 duration of this round and waved the match off. The night’s victory was then Valdez’s.

Osawa’s loss

Osawa’s defeat in the hands of Valdez Saturday night brings down his ranking to (30-4, 19KOs). The 31 year old Japanese has to bring his A game in his next fight so as to redeem his career from the dip it may suffer as a result of this defeat.

Valdez on his face off with Osawa

Even though it appeared like he had everything going on smoothly for him, Valdez has described his fight against Osawa as the toughest he has ever took part in.

Following his victory at the Thomas and Mack Center, the 25 year old is poised to face much more challenging opponents in 2017. The chairman of Top Rank Bob Arum has said that the Mexican’s next title defense could take place in Tucson early next year.

Valdez (21-0, 19 KO) won this title he was defending by knocking out Argentina’s Matias Rueda in a vacant title contest in July this year. The Mexican sensation has also previously beaten Evgeny Gradovich. It now remains to be seen who he will face in his next match.