Just seven months earlier, Oscar Valdez stepped out of the ring at Desert Diamond Arena, Glendale, Arizona, an utterly defeated man. He was vanquished by Emanuel Navarrete via unanimous decision, which saw the fighter and his father weeping in the locker room contemplating retirement. However, after he stepped back in the same ring last night, Valdez redeemed his loss by defeating Liam Wilson via seventh-round technical knockout.
As the fight had begun, Wilson took home the first two rounds, but that didn’t last for long. Valdez soon took over the fight dominating the Australian for the rest of the bout. Following the win, Valdez said, “We’re crying again. But this time it’s out of joy.” However, the win over the less experienced Australian boxer left the fans unsatisfied, mainly because of the stoppage.
Oscar Valdez shows off absolute domination
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Earlier today, Top Rank Boxing, who promotes the Nogales native, shared the clip of Valdez nearly putting Wilson on the canvas with the caption reading, “OSCAR VALDEZ IS BACK.” Meanwhile, in the clip, Valdez can be seen absolutely dominating his opponent, as Wilson had no answer to Valdez’s barrage of shots.
As the crowd in the arena started erupting with excitement with 30 seconds left in the round, one of the commentators could be heard saying, “Wilson is on the brink of going down.” Seeing zero response from Wilson, the other commentator said, “Gotta start answering back… Valdez has bad intentions.” However, it didn’t convince fans on X (formerly Twitter) that the stoppage was necessary.
Fans praise Liam Wilson for performance in first two rounds
After the fight ended, the clip of the fight instantaneously started going viral among boxing fans. Given that it was a redemption fight for Valdez, fans quickly came in hordes to express their thoughts. One user asserted that Wilson’s strategy going into the fight was flawed to begin with.
Wilson fought the wrong fight. Stayed inside too long. To tire out Valdez? Not a good plan.
— It's Gabe! (@itsgabe_gabe) March 30, 2024
Meanwhile, this user thought Wilson performed well in the first couple of rounds. However, the user felt Wilson’s decision to fight on the inside was what lost him the fight.
Wilson did amazing the first 2, smart strategy. But he fought way too close after that while Valdez let his hands fly
— Monric 🇧🇷 (@MonricOW) March 30, 2024
Another user felt the stoppage was unnecessary because Valdez hadn’t knocked out Wilson, and also because there were just 12 seconds left in the fight.
That stoppage was a joke.
Not even one knockdown and decided to step in with 12 seconds left.
— Jesús Gutiérrez (@jagc3ve) March 30, 2024
Even the next user echoed the same sentiment, claiming the stoppage came too early. It’s worth mentioning that referees often stop the fight before the boxer suffers severe damage.
That was an early stoppage imo.
— Juanpi1889 (@DemBlades1889) March 30, 2024
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Despite all the criticism about the stoppage, this user celebrated Valdez’s fantastic return after a loss last year.
I said it first!! Oscarito is back !!!@oscarvaldez56
— Ricardo Maldonado (@richmaldonad) March 30, 2024
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With that said, despite an amazing victory over Liam Wilson, Oscar Valdez’s victory seems to have fallen flat with some fans. However, even if the referee hadn’t stopped the fight, it seemed like Wilson would have suffered more damage and lost the fight anyway. Do you agree with the stoppage? Or do you think it was too early?