Tag Archives: Vasyl Lomachenko

Valdez KOs Matias Adrian Rueda to Win Featherweight World Title

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Oscar Valdez is officially a world champion…

The 25-year-old Mexican boxer, who always dreamed of being a world titleholder like his idols Erik Morales, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. and Jose Luis Castillo knocked out Matias Adrian Rueda in the second round to win a vacant featherweight world title Saturday night at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.

Oscar Valdez

“This was my dream since I was 8 years old,” Valdez said, holding back tears. “It is the dream we shared, me and my father. I just work hard in the gym. We got to accomplish our dream. Now I want to fight the best. Whoever it is, let’s do it.”

Valdez won the 126-pound world title vacated last month by Vasyl Lomachenko after he moved up in weight and won a junior lightweight title. And Valdez did it in explosive fashion.

He repeatedly rocked Rueda in the first round with left hooks to the head and then destroyed him in the second round.

Valdez (20-0, 18 KOs), Mexico’s only two-time Olympic boxer (2008 and 2012), began the round by rocking Rueda with a right hand to the head. Then he landed a left hook to the body that forced Rueda to take a knee.

Rueda (26-1, 23 KOs), 28, of Argentina, beat the count, but it was only a matter of time. Valdez went on the immediate attack and lashed him with punches. He put together a five-punch combination, four clean head shots followed by another powerful left hook to the body that dropped him again. As soon as Rueda went down referee Russell Mora waved off the fight at 2 minutes, 18 seconds.

“He caught me with a real good body shot and that was it,” Rueda said through an interpreter. “I could never recover. He really hurt me with that [first] body shot.”

Although Valdez was born in Mexico and still lives there, he spent most of his childhood living in Tucson, Arizona, where he went to school. A delegation of city officials were in Las Vegas for the fight to meet with Top Rank promoter Bob Arum about scheduling Valdez’s first defense in the city on November 26 pending a victory.

Salido Defeats Terdsak Kokietgym to Claim Interim Junior Lightweight Title

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Orlando Salido is beltin’ it out…

The 33-year-old Mexican professional boxer rallied to stop Thailand’s Terdsak Kokietgym by 11th-round TKO in Tijuana, Mexico on Saturday, to win a vacant interim junior lightweight title.

Orlando Salido

After getting up off the canvas three times in a fight that featured seven total knockdowns, Salido, a former three-time featherweight titlist, ended matters dramatically with a vicious, three-punch combination that left Kokietgym out on his back, leaving referee Eddie Claudio no need to count him out.

It was the fourth-straight title bout for Salido (42-12-2, 29 KOs), who defeated current featherweight titlist Vasyl Lomachenko in March by split decision one day after Salido lost his title on the scales for coming in overweight.

Kokietgym (53-5-1, 33 KOs), a southpaw, did his part off the opening bell to help make Saturday’s bout a viable fight of the year candidate by flooring Salido with a counter overhand left. But Salido rose from the deck to score a knockdown of his own later in the round on a body shot that appeared to land low.

The frenetic pace continued into Round 2 as Salido was hurt, and eventually floored hard, by a left hand in the closing seconds. But the rugged Mexican brawler began to turn the tide.

In Round 4, Salido appeared to have floored Kokietgym with a right hand, but Claudio ruled it a slip. An undeterred Salido continued to stalk forward with hard combinations and scored an undisputable knockdown later in the round with a left hook.

While Kokietgym remained competitive the rest of the way, routinely finding a home for uppercuts at close range, he was never the same after recording his final knockdown of Salido in Round 5.

Salido sent Kokietgym into the ropes and down to the canvas with a damaging right cross in Round 7 and buckled him again with the same punch the following round.

Kokietgym, a former world-title challenger at 126 and 130 pounds, snapped a seven-fight win streak and suffered his first defeat since dropping a unanimous decision to then-junior lightweight titlist Takahiro Ao in 2012.

Álvarez’s Run Ends with Boxing Bronze at the London Games

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London Olympics 2012

Lázaro Álvarez Estrada won’t get the chance to fight for gold at the 2012 Olympic Games…

The 21-year-old Cuban boxer—the reigning world champion and top seed in the men’s bantamweight draw at the London Games—suffered a 19-14 loss on Friday to Ireland’s John Joe Nevin, who will now face Great Britain’s Luke Campbell in Saturday’s gold medal match.

Lázaro Álvarez Estrada

Álvarez will have to settle for bronze, since all boxers who lose in the semifinal round are awarded bronze medals at the Olympics.

Meanwhile, Álvarez’s compatriot Yasnier Toledo Lopez will also have to settle for bronze.

The 22-year-old Cuban fighter lost to the Ukraine’s Vasyl Lomachenko in the semifinals of the men’s light 60kg category.

But Cuba isn’t out of the running for boxing gold completely.

Robeisy Ramirez Carrazana will fight Mongolia’s Tugstsogt Nyambayar for gold in the men’s flyweight division, while the gold medalist in the light welterweight class will be determined in a match between second seed Denys Berinchyk of the Ukraine and Cuba’s Roniel Iglesias Sotolongo, who earlier in the tournament knocked off top-seeded Everton dos Santos Lopes of Brazil.