Oscar Valdez holds title in slugfest with Miguel Marriaga
Oscar Valdez found himself challenged, hurt and gassed in the latest classic StubHub Center fight Saturday night.
All of that was rather new to the featherweight champion.
What didn’t change was the World Boxing Organization belt around his waist.
In a bout scored not as close as it appeared, Valdez (22-0) made his second successful title defense in an entertaining, combative triumph over Colombia’s Miguel Marriaga.
The bout was a slugfest that brought the crowd of 5,419 to its feet, punctuated by the 10th round, when Marriaga (25-2) battered Valdez with a flurry of punches before Valdez unleashed a hard punch to the right jaw that knocked down Marriaga, who struggled to convince referee Jack Reiss not to stop the fight.
Judges Julie Lederman (119-108), Zachary Young (116-111) and Steve Morrow (118-109) awarded Valdez the decision by a margin that didn’t seem to reflect the substantial welt on the right side of Valdez’s face or the way he labored at the close of the 11th.
“I’m just happy I won the fight,” Valdez said. “I did feel his punches. It was not easy.”
Valdez admitted he thought the outcome was possibly in jeopardy late, but his more powerful punches clearly convinced the judges to give him the series of narrow rounds.
And Marriaga provided a final endorsement by telling Valdez afterward, “You’re a great puncher and a great fighter.”
Earlier, WBO super-middleweight champion Gilberto Ramirez ran into hard-chinned, hold-happy Ukrainian Maxim Bursak and had to settle for a lopsided unanimous-decision victory by 120-106 on all three scorecards.
Bursak (33-5-1) couldn’t wrest the World Boxing Organization belt from Ramirez (35-0) in the Mexican fighter’s first title defense, so he was reduced to holding to slow the attacks from the 25-year-old from Mazatlan.
Shakur Stevenson, a 19-year-old Olympic silver-medalist from Newark, N.J., overcame a head-butting attack from Arizona’s Edgar Brito and flashed the talent that leads many to project him as a future world champion.
Stevenson’s pro debut ended oddly when ring doctor Paul Wallace ruled after five rounds that Brito could no longer continue because of an injury near the right eye that came on a clash of heads.
That threw the bout to the judges, who awarded Stevenson a unanimous-decision victory in the six-round featherweight bout by three scores of 60-54.
Follow Lance Pugmire on Twitter @latimespugmire
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