By Norm Frauenheim-
CARSON, Calif. – It was a brutal fight. Not even hours of rain could wash away the evidence on damp canvas. Long after the carnage had ended, it was there, a pool of blood, Oscar Valdez Jr.’s blood.
Valdez won.
He paid, too.
The price for Valdez’ unanimous decision over Scott Quigg Saturday night in front of more puddles than fans at StubHub Center and an ESPN audience was a broken jaw, damaged teeth and a long, nasty cut above one eye.
He was asked to got to the emergency room by paramedics who jumped into the ring almost at the same time as the 117-111, 118-110, 117-111 scorecards were announced. But Valdez, ever stubborn and resilient, said no.
Instead, he celebrated, his trainer Manny Robles said.
“He was laughing,’’ said Robles, who was there at the post-fight to talk for Valdez simply because the WBO’s reigning featherweight fighter just couldn’t.
Laughing at risk and fear.
Laughing at doubts and off the-scale disadvantages. They are there, seemingly always there for Valdez 24-0, 19 KOs). But he faced them and took them down again in a wild ride that for his fans in southern Arizona and Sonora, Mexico, have seen and sometimes endured again.
“He’s a warrior, a Mexican warrior,’’ Robles said.
He is and he’ll have the scars to prove it. Quigg (34-2-2, 25 KOs) put them there like nobody else has with power leveraged by about a seven-pound advantage the UK fighter had at opening bell. Quigg surrendered any chance at taking Valdez’ 126-pound title when he failed to make weight Friday. Quigg was 2.8 pounds above the limit. Then, his management said no to a second weigh-in Saturday morning. There was some talk that maybe the fight was off. In the end, however, the only talk that mattered came from Valdez.
“He made the decision,’’ Robles said.
In effect, Valdez was fighting somebody in one weight class heavier than he was. At opening bell, Quigg was a reported to be 142.2 pounds. Valdez was reported to be at 135.6.
The evident difference in size began to tell in the fourth or fifth round. Valdez’ superior quickness was clear early. But a stalking Quigg began to land big rights after the third.
In the fourth or fifth, one those rights broke Valdez’ jaw. For the next seven to eight rounds, blood poured from his mouth, down his chin and onto that spot on the canvas near his corner.
For the rest of the fight, cut man Miguel Diaz would not take out Valdez’ mouthpiece. The corner was afraid it would not be able to put that piece back into his misshapen, twisted jaw.
It was like his teeth had been moved to one side, ‘’ Robles said.
But nothing about his heart was ever out of place. He fought on. And on. He wasn’t the only one who paid in flesh. So, too, did Quigg, who suffered a suspected broken nose, a bad cut over his left eye and was left with a Frankenstein-look to him after it was all over.
Quigg, too, didn’t come to the post-fight news conference. Instead, his promoter Eddie Hearn was there to speak for him.
“The right man won,’’ Hearn said.
No argument there from anybody.
The only debate is about what’s next — who and when — for Valdez. In an interview for ESPN at the center of the ring in the wake of the fight, Valdez talked about fighting Leo Santa Cruz, or Carl Frampton, or Abner Mares.
Top Rank’s Todd DuBoef kept it short when asked what he wanted Valdez to do next.
“Heal,” said. duBoef who said it best.
Best of the Undercard
Anybody up for a rematch? One between super-featherweights Andy Vences (20-0-1, 12 KOs) and Erick De Leon (17-0-1, 10 KOs) looks inevitable after they fought to a hard-fought majority draw.
The Rest
Liver shots paralyze. Junior-welterweight Alex Saucedo (27-0, 17 KOs) threw one that was accurate and lethal, dropping Abner Lopez (26-1,16 KOs) into a paralyzed heap on a damp canvas at 1:18 of the 7th
Los Angeles junior-welterweight Arnold Barboza Jr. (18-0, 6 KOs) relied on his superior reach, carefully kept his distance and scored a unanimous decision over Michael Reed (23-2, 12 KOs of Maryland.
When it rains, first-round KOs pour: Heavyweight Andy Ruiz scored the fourth first-round stoppage in the first four fights, a landing a right for stoppage of Devin Vargas at 1:38 of the first.