Second Home: Oscar Valdez Jr. back in Tucson with another promise

By Norm Frauenheim-

TUCSON, Ariz. – Oscar Valdez Jr. is at home, his second home, with a promise as a priority.

In his last trip to Tucson in 2015, he promised he’d be back with a world title. He delivered on that one, returning with a World Boxing Organization belt that he won in 2016.

But one promise begets another.

“I’m not planning on losing this here,’’ Valdez said, with the belt in one hand, after he stepped off the scale Thursday at 125.8 pounds for his title defense against unknown Filipino Genesis Servania at Tucson Arena on an ESPN-televised card (7:30 p.m. PT/10:30 p.m. ET).

In a third defense of the belt, Valdez (22-0 19 KOs) is expected to win a bout that could set up a showdown with Belfast featherweight Carl Frampton. Frampton just signed with the company that manages Mick Conlan, a Valdez stablemate who faces Kenny Guzman on the Friday undercard.

Despite an unbeaten record (29-0, 12 KOs), not much is known about Servania, who is fighting in the United States for the first time after fighting mostly in the Philippines and Japan. Servania, who weighed in at 125.4 pounds, had one bout in Dubai

“There was a time when Manny Pacquiao wasn’t known, either,’’ said Valdez, who has generated headlines for Friday’s card by his vocal support for The Dreamer and their fight to stay in the United States.

Valdez promoter Bob Arum is offering 500 free tickets to Dreamers – undocumented immigrants brought to the U.S. when they were kids — who show up at the box office with documentation of their immigration status.

“This is insane, the policy that we now have,’’ Arum said a day after he announced the free tickets. “These Dreamer kids are as American as my grandkids. They were raised in this country. They speak English. They go to American schools. The idea that we would send them back to other countries is ludicrous.

“Americans are supposedly held to higher ethical standards than this. I will fight to the last breath in my body for these kids. They belong in the United States, they can contribute to this country and we have to open our hearts to them because they deserve it.

“They came here – does it matter if their parents came legally or illegally? They were kids when they came here and I think every American has the moral obligation to stand up for these dreams.’’

Up and down the card, there is support for what Valdez is saying and Arum is doing en behalf of the Dreamers.

“My people are good people, people who are just fighting to make living,’’ said Gilbert Ramirez, a Mexican who defends his WBO super-middleweight title against Jesse Hart in perhaps the most intriguing bout on the card.

Ramirez (35-0, 24 KOs) was 167.8 pounds Thursday. Hart (22-0. 18 KOs) tipped the scales at 167.6. Conlan (3-0, 3 KOs), an Irish Olympian, was at 126.6 pounds. His opponent, Kenny Guzman (3-0, 1 KO) was at 125.

The untelevised portion of the card begins at 4:30 p.m. (PT). It can be watched on an ESPN app.