Oscar Valdez vs Shakur Stevenson is a true dream come true for boxing fans. There are many reasons why this fight was expected and it will finally take place on April 30 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. Being part of one of the biggest showdowns of 2022 might have excited the Mexican warrior, who has made an emotional confession about the big problem he faced in his last fight.
One of the main reasons that turn Valdez vs Stevenson into a must-watch fight is the style of both fighters. Even though Oscar has been training his defense with Canelo Alvarez's coach, Eddy Reynoso, he only is him when he assaults his rivals. On the other side, Shakur does not walk away from any trouble cause he trusts in his boxing IQ to solve anything.
Both fighters are current World Super featherweight Champions at a very proper age to show their best physical and boxing skills. Also, they are undefeated (30-0-0 vs 17-0-0) and two-division World Champions, and maybe, the most important of all reasons to expect this bout, they do not like each other.
Oscar Valdez opens his heart ahead of his upcoming fight against Shakur Stevenson
Valdez was in the eye of the storm on his last fight. He defeated Brazilian contender Robson Conceicao with a very controversial UD on September 2021. Four weeks before this clash, he was involved in a doping scandal after testing positive for Phentermine, a banned substance for the VADA, in both his A and B samples.
When it was expected that Oscar Valdez was sanctioned and dropped off of what was going to be the first defense of his WBC 130 pounds World title, his license application was approved thanks to legal loopholes that allowed him to fight.
Despite the Mexican fighter continues claiming his innocence his pride and reputation were tarnished after this dark episode of his boxing career: "I was affected [by] the comments of people calling me a cheater, who said that I’m using something that’s prohibited. That’s not the case. I’ve always worked hard. I’ve always been a clean fighter. And the fact that they were pointing me out, without saying the facts, without saying what this substance was, that it was a clear mistake. And it never should’ve come up positive because different rules for organizations call it different.", stated in an interview for Boxing Scene.
"And the fact that I was called a cheater broke my heart, broke me down. I was a kid once who looked up to all these great fighters. And when I would hear stories about fighters using banned substances, PEDs, it would change my mind completely about fighters. So, the fact that was happening to me, that they were saying I was cheating in the sport of boxing, which I would never do, it brought me down. I really lost focus because I worked so hard my whole career, and to be criticized for that one thing, which shouldn’t be considered a banned substance, it just brought me down.”, added Oscar Valdez.
The reason why Oscar Valdez claims his innocence
Shakur Stevenson loves to make fun of everybody on social media. He has in mind that Valdez had the above-mentioned doping trouble, and has used it to attack him: "He got caught cheating, so he’s just gotta deal with everything that come with it. VADA’s about to make sure that they test him a lot more. We’re just trying to make sure he don’t cheat or nothing like that.”, shared the Fearless to Boxing Scene.
Nevertheless, Oscar Valdez continues pointing out every time he can that he is a clean fighter. Here is his argument according to the aforementioned media: “If people were to look at the details or educate themselves to what this really was, they would realize, ‘Oh, it’s not a banned substance,’ ... It’s not something that’s actually helping me in any way. It’s not a performance-enhancing drug is what I’m trying to say. It’s more of a diuretic. The only difference was this banned substance was if this banned substance would’ve come up 24 hours before the weigh-in, it would’ve been positive for the WADA. But through the VADA, if you’re on vacation or training camp, it doesn’t matter when, it’s prohibited. So, the only thing it would help with was losing weight, which didn’t make sense for me using that because it was three weeks away from the weigh-in."
