Photo Credit : Chris Farina – Top Rank

Top Rank super featherweight Oscar Valdez (16-0 14KOs) faced trouble early as he was dropped by Rueben Tamayo (25-6-4 17KOs) in the first round. Some would say that it was Tamayo stepping on Valdez’s foot, but it was still not the best thing to occur in the opening round of his HBO debut.

Valdez would get off the canvas to outwork Tamayo landing hard, crisp punches as Valdez began to fight on the inside as he put together combination punching on the inside. Tamayo began to rely strictly on jabbing, which wasn’t enough to keep the powerful puncher off him. In the seventh round, Tamayo was deduced a point for a low blow, one that didn’t seem apparent, but no one really objected to.

In the end, Valdez won the bout with the scores 98-90, 98-90, 99-90 as Valdez picked up a serviceable win on the big stage as he showed elements of his amateur boxing career carrying over into the pro game.