Yokasta Valle can appreciate why Seniesa Estrada would take this fight so personally.
It’s just not a viewpoint that she shares.
The upcoming undisputed championship is just another business trip for the three-division title claimant from Costa Rica. The pair of unified strawweight titlists meet in a long-awaited grudge match on an March 29 ESPN+ show from Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona.
“I’m not going to disappoint,” Valle told host ESPN’s Crystina Poncher during a recent press conference at Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas to formally announce the fight. “This is champion versus champion, it’s nothing personal for me. I just want to be the undisputed champion.
“Seniesa has two titles. That’s what I’m looking for, not her personally. Simply the world titles.”
The show’s headliner pits former two-division champ Oscar Valdez (31-2, 23KOs) and former title challenger Liam Wilson (13-2, 7KOs) in a scheduled twelve-round, junior lightweight fight. However, Estrada-Valle has rapidly emerged as the fight to watch on the upcoming show.
Valle (30-2, 9KOs) won a title at the women-specific 102-pound atomweight division and held unified status at both strawweight and junior flyweight. A November 2022 win over Evelin Bermudez to claim the IBF and WBO 108-pound titles made for a short-lived reign, as Valle vacated shortly thereafter to return to strawweight where she also holds the IBF and WBO belts.
East Los Angeles’ Estrada (25-0, 9KOs) held the WBA title at the time and since added the WBC and Ring Magazine belts to her collection. The latter haul came last March in a ten-round shutout of Germany’s Tina Rupprecht, the last fighter to hang a loss on Valle back in 2016. Valle has since won seventeen in a row, including eleven in title fights.
“This is what I’ve been working hard and moved through the divisions for,” noted Valle, who has held at least one strawweight title since August 2019. “From 102 to 105 to 108, all with the goal to become undisputed.
We’re one step away. We’re here and we are very excited.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. X (formerly Twitter): @JakeNDaBox