There was a time when Yokasta Valle considered her best shot at unification would come on the road against Seniesa Estrada.
It was a sacrifice that she was willing to make, for the primary goal of adding another title to her collection. The latter has materialized for Valle, who aims to win the WBO strawweight title and defend her IBF crown in her showdown with Vietnam’s Thi Thu Nhi Nguyen (5-0, 1KO). The bout headlines a DAZN show Thursday, live from Cuidad Deportiva Heiner Ugalde in San Jose, Costa Rica.
“I feel happy for this opportunity. All I’ve ever wanted was to get a unification fight,” Valle told BoxingScene.com. “Now we have the chance to fight another champion. I wanted to fight Seniesa Estrada but I didn’t need her. I just needed to fight another champion and now we have that opportunity.”
Valle (25-2, 9KOs) will attempt the sixth defense of the IBF title she has held since an August 2019 split decision win over Joana Pastrana in Marbella, Spain. The 30-year-old Costa Rican—originally from Nicaragua before relocating with her family at age seven—has enjoyed four of her five title defenses at home, along with two non-title fights during that stretch.
An effort was made by Valle last summer to track down Estrada in hopes of securing a divisional superfight. It never panned out, though it has not at all slowed down her career. Valle will fight for the fifth time in thirteen months by the time she enters the ring on Thursday, including her third fight of 2022. The most recent marked her U.S. debut, earning a ten-round shutout of overmatched Lorraine Villalobos in a last-minute opportunity to appear on a June 11 Golden Boy Promotions show in Anaheim, signing with the L.A.-based outfit two days later.
The first official fight under that agreement marks an historic moment. Her fight versus Nguyen marks the first-ever title unification bout to take place in Costa Rica. The hope is that it won’t be the last, although Valle will remain willing to travel anywhere in the world to make more history.
“I want to unify all four belts and win the Ring Magazine championship,” vowed Valle. “Nobody has ever won that before in this weight division. Once I am able to achieve that goal, then we will look into moving up in weight and becoming a multi-division champion.
“For now, I am very comfortable at strawweight and I have unfinished business here.”
Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox