Oscar Valdez demolishes Matias Adrian Rueda in two rounds
— -- LAS VEGAS -- Since he was a young boy, Oscar Valdez dreamed of being like his heroes Erik Morales, Julio Cesar Chavez Sr. and Jose Luis Castillo and winning a world title.
Dreams do come true.
Valdez turned in a sensational performance as he knocked out Matias Adrian Rueda in the second round of an overwhelming performance to win a vacant featherweight world title Saturday night on the Terence Crawford-Viktor Postol undercard at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
"This was my dream since I was 8 years old," Valdez said, holding back tears. "It is the dream we shared, me and my father. I just work hard in the gym. We got to accomplish our dream. Now I want to fight the best. Whoever it is, let's do it."
Valdez won the 126-pound world title vacated last month by Vasyl Lomachenko after he moved up in weight and won a junior lightweight title. And Valdez did it in explosive fashion.
He repeatedly rocked Rueda in the first round with left hooks to the head and then destroyed him in the second round.
Valdez (20-0, 18 KOs), 25, Mexico's only two-time Olympic boxer (2008 and 2012), began the round by rocking Rueda with a right hand to the head. Then he landed a left hook to the body that forced Rueda to take a knee.
Rueda (26-1, 23 KOs), 28, of Argentina, beat the count, but it was only a matter of time. Valdez went on the immediate attack and lashed him with punches. He put together a five-punch combination, four clean head shots followed by another powerful left hook to the body that dropped him again. As soon as Rueda went down referee Russell Mora waved off the fight at 2 minutes, 18 seconds.
"He caught me with a real good body shot and that was it," Rueda said through an interpreter. "I could never recover. He really hurt me with that [first] body shot."
Although Valdez was born in Mexico and still lives there, he spent most of his childhood living in Tucson, Arizona, where he went to school. A delegation of city officials were in Las Vegas for the fight to meet with Top Rank promoter Bob Arum about scheduling Valdez's first defense in the city on Nov. 26 pending a victory.
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