By Keith Idec

Oscar Valdez was displeased with his performance against Genesis Servania as soon as the final bell rang to end their fight.

Valdez defeated Servania by unanimous decision in their 12-rounder September 22 in Tucson, Arizona, and retained his WBO featherweight title. The 2012 Mexican Olympian also suffered the first knockdown of his career in that fight and thinks he got hit too much overall.

The Philippines’ Servania (30-1, 13 KOs) dropped Valdez with a straight right hand as Valdez, with his hands down, moved away from his aggressive challenger. A surprised Valdez got right to his feet, recovered and floored Servania with a left hook in the fifth round.

The 27-year-old Valdez was a wide winner on the scorecards (117-109, 116-110, 115-111), yet knows he can perform much better against England’s Scott Quigg on Saturday night. ESPN will televise Valdez-Quigg as the main event of a doubleheader from StubHub Center in Carson, California (10:30 p.m. ET).

“I learned a lot from the Genesis Servania fight,” Valdez told krikya360.com. “From every fight, I always learn something and gain more experience. The Genesis Servania fight is definitely gonna help me a lot in this fight. I’ll be more aware, keep my hands up and stay more focused in the ring.

“In my eyes, I committed a lot of mistakes in the Genesis Servania fight. I wasn’t happy with my performance when I finished the fight. But just hearing the result and hearing the crowd and hearing all the comments about the fight, that everybody liked it, it gave me nothing but motivation.”

Valdez (23-0, 19 KOs) is roughly a 4-1 favorite over Quigg (34-1-2, 25 KOs), who has lost only a split decision to former WBA featherweight champ Carl Frampton (24-1, 14 KOs). The defending champion has very personal knowledge of Quigg’s capabilities, though, because they sparred with each other several times two years ago at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Boxing Club in Hollywood, California.

“Scott Quigg’s a tough fighter,” Valdez said. “I know him very well. I’ve seen him before. I’ve seen him fight. I’ve been in the ring with him for sparring sessions. He’s a tough fighter. I’m not taking this fight lightly. I’m gonna go in there and prove that I’m the best featherweight out there.”

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for krikya360.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.