Oscar Valdez defeated defending champion Miguel Berchelt to secure the WBC super featherweight belt on Saturday after handing over a powerful left hook to knock him out at the end of the 10thº Round.
The victory could lead Valdez to a fight with WBO champion Shakur Stevenson, who sat next to the ring at the MGM Grand Conference Center and said: “This is the only fight to be done now.”
Berchelt did not move for several seconds after being knocked out and had to be helped to sit up.
Valdez scored a knockdown in the fourth, when the referee determined that the strings held Berchelt. But Berchelt, who has held the WBC super featherweight title since 2017 and is considered the best active super featherweight in the world, set up a rally in the middle of the match.
“There is nothing better in life than proving that people are wrong,” Valdez told reporters, 30. “I have a list of people who doubted me. My idols doubted me. Boxing analysts doubted me. They said Berchelt was going to knock me out. I have a message for everyone: don’t let anyone say what you can and cannot do. “