“Everybody has a plan until you get hit,” said Mike Tyson once. This quote truly embodies the sport of boxing. Most times, folks forget how well-trained and resilient these fighters are. They go into the ring with multiple life-defining injuries and put on a fight that shapes their boxing career. Remember that iconic fight in March 2018 when Oscar Valdez and Scott Quigg went home with injuries that defined the next few years of their boxing careers?

The World Feather Championship saw both weight-class fighters give it all they had to secure the title. While doing so, Valdez suffered a major broken jaw, while Quigg went home with a broken nose. However, as most would opine, combat sports always come with the risk of injuries. But what really makes these two fighters one of their kind is that they finished the same matchup despite their grave injuries. What made Oscar Valdez push for victory even after sustaining his injury?

Unstoppable by injury, Oscar Valdez rose to victory

As he emerged victorious against Scott Quigg, ‘The King’ Valdez was rushed into an ambulance on the 10th of March, 2018, right before he flashed a smile to his team for securing the title. It was then revealed that the fighter had sustained a broken jaw during the fight. However, no surgery was required for him to recover, but his boxing career looked uncertain. That was the severity of his injury.

But it nudges us towards the question: despite the injury, how did he go on to show his exemplary performance in the bout? In a recent interview with Top Rank Boxing, The King revealed that his team initially thought it was just a broken tooth, and this gave him the confidence he needed to continue with the fight.

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In the interview, the fighter said, “It was in the 11 he said my tooth fell. What it really was my jaw was split open. So he thought my tooth had fallen. So when he says that I thought oh I am stupid. I thought this whole time I thought I had my jaw broken it is a tooth that has fallen. That gave me more confidence.” Thus, Valdez proved his warrior mentality by fighting through the grave injury, leaving behind a bloody battlefield.

Valdez proves that resilience leads to greatness

Indeed, so! If not the fight of the year, it was most definitely the bloodiest. As he emerged as the champion that night, he left behind a pool of blood and shivers down the audience’s spine. An undisputed champion back then, Valdez took on a heavier fighter, Scott Quigg. As the latter inflicted some devastating damage on The King’s body, he also lost to him through a unanimous decision. However, as Valdez existed in the arena, he left behind a plethora of questions about his future in the boxing game.

He crushed all those questions as he emerged victorious against Carmine Tommasone by knockout just a year later. As most predicted, it is not much of a challenge for the fighter. Tommasone had not lived up to expectations until then. However, it was still impressive to see him enter the ring. Tommasone had stopped just five fighters from winning in his record of 19 bouts. As Valdez retained his title at featherweight, he went on to fight his next few matches with great panache.

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Only until he saw his first defeat against Shakur Stevenson last year through a unanimous decision. However, he recovered from that dent earlier this year as he went against Adam Lopez and won by a unanimous decision.

We will be seeing the fighter enter the ring yet again this year on the 12th of August. He will be going against Emanuel Navarrete for the WBO Super Featherweight championship. Do you think he will continue his streak of victories? Let us know in the comments below.

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