By Steve Kim

Last week in Tucson, Arizona, Oscar Valdez successfully defended his WBO featherweight title by out-pointing the game Genesis Servania over twelve entertaining rounds. Valdez won by the scores of 116-110, 115-111 and 117-109 - but the scores don't tell the story of just how tough this fight really was.

Valdez and the Filipino challenger traded knockdowns and this was another physically grueling bout for Valdez who went twelve hard rounds with Miguel Marriaga  back in April.

When asked to assess his boxers performance, trainer Manuel Robles said - "I think we needed some overall improvements, I feel that Oscar gets a little bit too excited. He's a lot more skillful and he's a lot more of a technical fighter than people can ever imagine. Defensively, he has great footwork, great mobility, great upper body movement but he just gets a little carried away because he likes to give people what they want - which is excitement."

For Robles, the challenge is to get his fighter to please him as the trainer, more than the fans.

"Correct, that's something we have to discuss, something that's been brought to his attention in the past but I don't know what it was about this fight," said the trainer, who believes that this being a homecoming fight of sorts for Valdez (23-0/19 KO's) played a factor.

"Maybe fighting in Tucson, maybe the crowd, the fans really got to him in a sense that he wanted to give them excitement, give them what they wanted.

"So you learn with every fight, I'm sure. I've learned with this fight and I'm sure Oscar Valdez has learned. We all learn as a team to make adjustments. I feel that it wasn't his best performance because I know what my fighters capable. I've seen him do much, much better."

Robles added,"the most important thing is for Oscar to control is emotions,'' and to fight with,''controlled aggression."

There has been a lot of chatter about Valdez facing former featherweight titlist, Carl Frampton in the near future. It's something that Robles welcomes.

"Absolutely, because I know what I have," he stated, with confidence. "I know what I'm working with, I know what I'm dealing with. I believe that Oscar has the potential to fight Carl Frampton next if it had to be."

Steve Kim is the news editor for BoxingScene.com.