Bob Arum Credits Eddy Reynoso for Oscar Valdez vs Shakur Stevenson Happening
Since his days competing within the featherweight division, WBO super featherweight champion “Fearless” Shakur Stevenson (17-0, 9 KO’s) has pursued a showdown with WBC 130-pound champion Oscar Valdez (30-0, 23 KO’s) with gusto. Ultimately, Stevenson’s persistence has been rewarded with an April 30 unification match with the Mexican boxer. Up to this point, Valdez has maintained that he simply had bigger fish to fry than Stevenson.
With their match officially scheduled however, Valdez insists that his motivation is to silence the brash New Jersey native. Let Shakur Stevenson tell it, his counterpart still doesn’t want the match. His account asserts that Valdez was pressured by his team to accept the fight. Now, Bob Arum of Top Rank, who promotes both fighters, substantiates Stevenson’s belief that facing Fearless was not something that Valdez was looking to do.
“The one thing that you have to understand is Oscar relied heavily on Eddy Reynoso, who convinced him to do this fight…there is no question about it, that without Reynoso this fight never would have happened!”
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Unsurprisingly, there has been a substantial amount of light shined on the fact that Valdez was greatly assisted in his camp by undisputed super middleweight champion Saul “Canelo” Alvarez. Both Alvarez and Valdez are trained by chief second Eddy Reynoso. Valdez secured Reynoso as his lead trainer following his duel with Scott Quigg nearly four years ago.
Given the tremendous success that Reynoso and Canelo have enjoyed in the sport, its clear why Valdez has been so receptive to their teachings and advice. So much so that the boxing world is now being gifted this upcoming duel.
At this point, the only thing left to do is see how the two fighters perform in the ring. Provided that Valdez wins, clearly facing Stevenson was the right move. If he loses however, perhaps remaining evasive was the more strategic option. Thankfully 3Kings Boxing will be here to report the outcome regarding the victor!
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By: Bakari Simpson
