By Norm Frauenheim
TUCSON – It’s the beginning of a comeback, for a father and a son.
The dad, Oscar Valdez Sr., will take the first step Saturday in his return to the corner as a lead trainer at Casino Del Sol after a long battle with a virus that left him hospitalized for months in Mexico City and kept him in a wheel chair in London while his son fought for Mexico at the 2012 Olympics.
“It was serious, very serious,’’ Valdez Sr., who will make his comeback for nephew Thomas Valdez of Nogales, Sonora, against Luis Coria of Robert Garcia’s Boxing Academy in southern California in a super-featherweight main event on a Michelle Rosado-promoted card.
“Couldn’t run. Could hardly move.’’
Valdez Sr. is still fighting the effects of a food-borne virus he got in Rio De Janeiro during an international tournament with his son in 2011.
The dad’s comeback coincides with one from his son, Oscar Valdez Jr., a featherweight champion who is in his own battle to come back from a brutal victory over Scott Quigg in the rain at StubHub Centre on March 10 when he suffered a fractured jaw that left his face misshapen and his future uncertain.
The son’s jaw, dad said, has healed. About the future, he said he’s never had any doubt. His son, a WBO champ, has been working with new cornerman Eddy Reynoso, Canelo Alvarez’ trainer, in San Diego for a bout – a test run — projected to be on Jan. 12 in either Mexico City, Tucson or Phoenix.
“My son’s mind is the same,’’ Oscar Valdez Sr. said Friday after Thomas Valdez (17-3-2, 7 KOs) was at 128.5 pounds and Coria (9-1, 4 KOs) at 129.5 for the main event on a 10-fight card scheduled to begin Saturday at 6 p.m. (MT). “Has always known exactly what he wants and has always been willing to do whatever it takes to get there.’’
His jaw might the knocked out of place. But never his goals, Valdez Sr. said.
An unshakable will was evident throughout 12 rounds against a bigger Quigg, who was three pounds heavier than the featherweight limit at the weigh-in and at least seven pounds heavier than Valdez Jr. at opening bell.
Valdez Jr. lost blood and guts, leaving both in puddles of gore on wet canvas throughout the later rounds of a leading Fight of the Year contender. But he would not lose the fight or the WBO title.
Will, as intangible is it is inexhaustible in Valdez Jr, has been strengthened by the test, his dad said. But there’s more to it than that in a story about father and son sharing adversity and then the motivation to battle through it. The dad was there on that rainy night, a second carrying a bucket that collected more of his son’s blood than it did rain. He was there to wash his mouthpiece, urge him on and – yeah, he said—sometimes pray.
“After all of these years, I’m still battling to come back from being sick,’’ Valdez Sr. said. “That illness is still in me. With Thomas, I’m probably a more of a strategist and tactician than anything. I can’t hold the mitts. But I feel good, really good.’’
Now, it dad’s turn. Like Son, like Father.
