Oscar Valdez: 'This Liam Wilson fight is all or nothing for me. It’s career defining'

Oscar Valdez has had a long, glittering career. He’s been a two-weight world champion and thrilled in high-profile fights.

But if he loses to Liam Wilson at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona live on Sky Sports in the early hours of Saturday morning, Valdez might just have reached the end of the line.

"This fight is all or nothing for me," Valdez told Sky Sports. "It's a career defining opportunity.

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"Liam Wilson and I know that whoever wins this fight is a step closer to a world title fight. Which makes it very important."

The Mexican remains ambitious. "I feel if Oscar Valdez retires today, Oscar Valdez did not achieve nothing in boxing," he said.

"There's a lot of great fighters out there and I always admire the greats, Julio Cesar Chavez, Muhammad Ali, Sugar Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Floyd Mayweather, Manny Pacquiao. What did these guys do different? They conquered everything. Canelo Alvarez conquered everything.

"These are fighters that went up to different divisions, unified and became undisputed. There's so many things you can accomplish in boxing and if you're not aiming high, what are we doing? I'm always a fighter that likes to aim high.

"I've been following my dream and my dream is to become one of the best."

But Australia's Liam Wilson could derail all those hopes.

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"I was there when he fought Emanuel Navarrete, he sent him to the canvas and I've got nothing but respect for the guy as a fighter and as a person," Valdez said. "Many people thought he should have won the fight because he had Navarrete very hurt.

"He's a good fighter in general," Valdez added. "But we're going to do whatever it takes to win this.

"We're working on counter-punches, we're working on long combinations and being the faster smarter fighter inside the ring.

"We're just going to be the smarter fighter in there and do whatever it takes."

Valdez has a propensity for scoring highlight-reel finishes. He hopes he could take out Wilson in similar fashion.

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"We don't depend on a one-hit knockout. We can do that. That's a big mistake in boxing as a professional. You can't always be looking for a knockout. It's like trying to hit a home run always. You've got to just wait for it," he said.

But he believes that was the mistake he made in his last fight against Mexican rival Navarrete when Valdez suffered a second career loss.

"I was looking for the knockout because my home fans were there, my people were there to watch me and I wanted to give them a spectacular knockout," he explained.

"I lose a bit of focus on the gameplan and I think that's one of the main mistakes that I did in my last fight. So if I could go back, I'd not look for the knockout, take it round by round."

Valdez has proven himself throughout his career. He pinpoints his gritty display when overcoming Scott Quigg as a key moment. Valdez had to endure much of the fight with a broken jaw and came through the victor.

"Mexican boxing fans are the hardest to convince. You can have speed, you have discipline, you can have defence, you can have all that but if you don't have that last check - which is warrior or heart, Mexican fight fans they won't approve of you," Valdez explained.

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"And after that fight I felt I got that last check. Oscar Valdez has heart. He's a warrior. Everywhere I went people would call me warrior, guerrero.

"That brought a lot of joy to myself because I always dreamed of that. I always dreamed of being someone like Erik Morales or Marco Antonio Barrera. Those kind of fighters.

"I just knew it was broken but I was just so scared of losing," he recalled of the Quigg fight. "Just full of pain. But pain is temporary… The mind is stronger than the pain sometimes.

"It was very painful but the dream was even bigger."

Watch Oscar Valdez vs Liam Wilson live on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Action at 1am on Saturday morning.