Yokasta Valle (left) and Evelyn Bermudez on the weigh-in. (Photograph by Tom Hogan/Hoganphotos)
Yokasta Valle is within the prime of her profession and desires the hardest challenges. A lot in order that she is transferring up in weight to face the most effective fighters at 108 kilos.
Valle will tackle Evelyn Bermudez tonight at Dignity Well being Sports activities Park in Carson, California. The ten-round bout will precede the extremely anticipated junior welterweight conflict between Regis Prograis and Jose Zepeda, who will likely be preventing for the vacant WBC title.
Each fights will stream reside on Fite.television Pay-Per-View (9 p.m. ET/ 6 p.m. PT).
Valle (26-2, 9 knockouts), who is ranked No. 2 by The Ring at 105 kilos, final fought on September 8, defeating Thi Thu Nhi Nguyen of Vietnam by unanimous choice. With the win, Valle efficiently defended her IBF strawweight title and received Nguyen’s WBO belt.
Valle (left), en path to unifying two strawweight titles towards Vietnam’s Thi Thu Nhi Nguyen. (Photograph by EZEQUIEL BECERRA/AFP by way of Getty Pictures)
For tonight’s battle, Valle will likely be difficult Bermudez for her IBF and WBO junior flyweight titles. Bermudez (17-0-1, 6 KOs) resides in Rosario, Argentina, and is ranked No. 2 by The Ring at 108 kilos.
At Friday’s weigh-in, Valle weighed in at 107.4 kilos. Bermudez weighed 106.
The 30-year-old Valle was eyeing one other unification bout towards the opposite titleholders at 105 kilos however couldn’t get Seniesa Estrada or Tina Rupprecht within the ring, so she moved ahead.
“I need to battle the most effective,” Valle informed The Ring Friday night. “I need to be undisputed. When Tina (WBC titleholder) and Seniesa (WBA titleholder) weren’t obtainable, my workforce and I made the choice to maneuver up in weight and problem Evelyn for her world title belts. I’ve to battle. (Promoter) Marv Rodriguez offered this battle to me.
“That is the kind of battle I would like. It’s champion versus champion. I need to give the followers a lot of these fights.”
Valle is making the soar to junior flyweight to face Bermudez. (Photograph by Tom Hogan/Hoganphotos)
Valle says she has benefited from working with new coach Gloria Alvarado.
“I research movie lots, however Gloria and I develop a recreation plan for the battle,” mentioned Valle, who now trains within the Los Angeles space. “We work rather well collectively, notably figuring out strengths from opponents we face and neutralizing them. For instance, Gloria informed me Nguyen threw quite a lot of lead proper crosses. What did we do? We took that away from Nguyen. She hardly ever threw lead proper crosses within the battle. We now have sparring companions mimic what our opponents will do. The onerous work we put within the health club in return makes issues look straightforward within the ring.”
Valle is initially from Nicaragua however migrated to San Jose, Costa Rica. In a soccer-crazed nation, Valle has managed to make boxing an attraction and never a lot a spectacle.
It took some time for the individuals to catch on, however her fights are enormous occasions all through Costa Rica. Venues promote out, together with the Nguyen battle, and Valle says that boxing is starting to turn out to be widespread with younger females within the nation.
Valle received a shutout choice over Lorraine Villalobos in June 2022. (Photograph by Tom Hogan/Golden Boy Promotions by way of Getty Pictures)
“Soccer is king in Costa Rica,” mentioned Valle. “Individuals have been barely made conscious of the game after I first began preventing there. It was an enormous sacrifice for me as a result of I had only a few sponsors again then. The game then started to vary the panorama of the nation. Now that I’m a champion, boxing has grown. I’m handled effectively as an individual and as a fighter. What makes it very gratifying is that younger women have turn out to be within the sport. Ladies in colleges need to turn out to be the following Yokasta Valle. They need to be ‘Yoka.’ It motivates me to proceed being a optimistic affect of their lives.”
Valle has come a great distance from her final defeat, which was by the hands of Tina Rupprecht, who holds the WBC title, in June 2018. She has since received her final 13 fights and is trying to journey that momentum in the direction of more and more vital fights. She hopes to be talked about among the many finest in boxing.
“It has not been straightforward. We work onerous and sacrifice. [Tonight] will mark my fifth battle in 11 months. I received world titles and I make it a should to defend towards the most effective fighters attainable.
“I hope to proceed successful and being talked about amongst the greats, like (Claressa) Shields, Katie Taylor and Amanda Serrano. It offers me nice motivation to be talked about amongst them. If I’m in comparison with them, it’s an honor, and I battle with starvation and motivation. I need to be there and I imagine I can get there.”
Francisco A. Salazar has written for The Ring since October 2013 and has lined boxing in Southern California and overseas since 2000. Francisco additionally covers boxing for the Ventura County (California) Star newspaper. He might be reached at [email protected]
