Last Friday’s Top Rank-promoted card saw two pivotal results occur in the two headlining shows as American champion Seniesa Estrada became undisputed at minimumweight/strawweight after a unanimous decision win over Costa Rican champion Yokasta Valle, while super featherweight contender Oscar Valdez earned the vacant WBO interim title with a stoppage victory over Australian opponent Liam Wilson. The show was held at the Desert Diamond Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on March 29th.

Though the minimumweight/strawweight undisputed bout between Seniesa Estrada (26-0, 9 KO’s) and Yokasta Valle (30-3, 9 KO’s) served as the co-main event rather than the main event, the two female fighters made history regardless as the first undisputed champion of their weight class was decided upon the night.

It was not a walk-through victory for Seniesa Estrada but her win was nonetheless well-deserved as she coursed to a unanimous decision (UD) win with all three judges painting her as the winner with scorecards of 97-93. While Seniesa Estrada did outpoint Yokasta Valle, it did seem to be her toughest match yet as Valle sneaked through Estrada’s defense more times than comfortable.

However, it was Estrada’s ring IQ and boxing ability that made the difference on the night; two key aspects that truly came to light in the latter half of the fight as Valle’s conditioning seemed to falter every round.

Estrada’s victory has now allowed her to become the first female minimumweight champion in history as she unified her WBA and WBC titles with Valle’s WBO and IBF titles. Her monumental victory against another unified champion of near-equal ability has now solidified Estrada’s position as a pound-for-pound fighter, making her one of the best fighters on the planet and likely the best at the lowest weight classes of the sport. Seniesa Estrada also won the vacant The Ring Boxing Magazine lineal title that had been made available in this bout for the two champions―as they were considered the best two fighters in the division.

The main event between Oscar Valdez (32-2, 24 KO’s) and Liam Wilson (13-3, 7 KO’s) was for the vacant WBO super featherweight/junior lightweight interim title that had only recently been made available due to full WBO champion Emanuel Navarrete’s (38-1-1, 31 KO’s) choice to fight at lightweight in his upcoming fight. Navarrete had previously beaten both Valdez and Wilson in 2023.

Notably, the match between the two was an exciting as well as evenly-matched affair, with Wilson feeling more comfortable fighting on the front foot while Valdez showed a relative improvement in his ability by incorporating more counters and fighting on the backfoot.

While both fighters seemed to be evenly-matched, each seemingly taking around the same number of rounds in a bout that was constantly in ebb and flow, it was Valdez who struck lucky with a left hand in the seventh round, dazing Wilson and allowing Valdez to follow up with combinations that would eventually force the referee to intercede, resulting in a technical knockout (TKO) or stoppage victory for Valdez―and resulting in him winning the vacant WBO interim 130 lbs title.

Aside from winning the WBO interim title, Valdez has also become the mandatory challenger according to the WBO, allowing him to seek revenge against Emanuel Navarrete who will remain the WBO super featherweight champion regardless of whether he loses or wins against Denys Berinchyk (18-0, 9 KO’s) in their upcoming match on May 18th―as they will be fighting over the WBO lightweight title.

However, depending on what happens on May 18th, Navarrete may not choose to come back to super featherweight which will result in him vacating his WBO title, which would allow Valdez to fight over that vacant belt against another suitable top contender. The current highest-rated 130 lbs contender according to the WBA is American fighter Albert Bell who is ranked at #1 on the WBO’s super featherweight rankings, setting up the possibility of Valdez restarting his reign as world champion following the loss of his WBC 130 lbs title to Shakur Stevenson (21-0, 10 KO’s) in a unification match in 2022.

The Top Rank card showcased several other fighters rising in prominence, with lightweight American contender Raymond Muratalla (20-0, 16 KO’s) showing a step-up in opponents has been long overdue following a dominant and easy UD victory over South African Xolisani Ndongeni (31-5, 18 KO’s) who has lost in his past two fights.

Given the bout between Top Rank fighter Navarrete and Berinchyk will decide the WBO champion in the near future, while another Top Rank protégé in Shakur Stevenson holds the WBC title, Muratalla can easily become the next in line to fight for either the WBO or WBC title. Additionally, Muratalla can also challenge for the IBF title in the near future with Top Rank fighters George Kambosos Jr (21-2, 10 KO’s) and Vasyl Lomachenko (17-3, 11 KO’s) set to battle on May 12th over the now-vacant IBF belt.

American heavyweight prospect Richard Torrez Jr (9-0, 9 KO’s) maintained his 100% KO ratio as he stormed to a first-round win over countryman Donald Haynesworth (18-9-1, 16 KO’s). While Torrez has been quite active over the past two years since making his professional debut in 2022, the American heavyweight has yet to come close to fighting a ranked fighter―or a fighter on the verge of being ranked.

With Torrez still largely unproven, the jury on his potential when it comes to challenging for world titles is still unclear, but what is certain is that he might also benefit from stepping up in the level of opponents he’s faced thus far so he can improve significantly enough over the next couple of fights to at least be considered a fringe heavyweight contender.