ESPN boxing main event off after ridiculous 11-pound weight miss

ESPN+ screenshot

Oscar Valdez won’t be fighting Andres Gutierrez on Saturday in Las Vegas for one very obvious reason.

There’s missing weight, then there’s really missing weight.

Saturday’s Top Rank Boxing on ESPN+ main event was supposed to feature former WBO featherweight champion Oscar Valdez’s debut at 130 lbs against veteran Andres Gutierrez (38-2-1, 26 KOs). Valdez made weight, but Gutierrez… wasn’t even close.

Gutierrez was so far off base that he would’ve been heavy at lightweight (135 lbs) and junior welterweight (140 lbs). It takes a real level of screw-up to miss by two divisions, and to the surprise of no one, you can kiss this fight goodbye.

Presumably the Nevada Athletic Commission will deal with Gutierrez’s outrageous unprofessional behavior in due time. It is hardly a first-time offense for Gutierrez either; he was four pounds over against Cristian Mijares in 2016.

This is also not the first time Valdez (26-0, 20 KOs) has had the frustration of an overweight opponent. Valdez beat Scott Quigg last year in one of the better boxing matches of 2018, but Quigg missed weight by three pounds. Oscar suffered a broken jaw in the process that put him out of action for more than a year.

Valdez will remain on tomorrow’s card against Adam Lopez (13-1, 6 KOs), who made weight and was going to be on the undercard anyway, so his training camp will not be for naught.

By the way, the co-main of this event is Carl Frampton vs. Tyler McCreary. Frampton was scheduled to fight Gutierrez in 2017, and while Gutierrez actually bothered to make weight, he still got the fight cancelled after accidentally knocking himself out in the shower on fight day. It’s safe to say that no major promoters may be willing to work with Gutierrez any time soon after this latest disaster.