Seniesa Estrada and Yokasta Valle will fight to crown the first undisputed strawweight champion in women’s boxing history, March 29 at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona (ESPN/ESPN+).
The fight will be the co-main event on the card featuring the Oscar Valdez-Liam Wilson junior lightweight bout.
Estrada (25-0, 9 KOs), of East Los Angeles, won the WBA belt by defeating Anabel Ortiz in March 2021. After moving up four months later to fight for the WBO junior flyweight title in a victory over Tenkai Tsunami, Estrada made two successful defenses before adding the WBC title in a victory over Tina Rupprecht last March. She defended the two titles in a unanimous decision win over Leonela Paola Yudica in July.
Valle (30-2, 9 KOs) won the IBF belt in August 2019 against Joana Pastrana, and after five defenses she unified the WBO belt with a unanimous decision win over Thi Thu Nhi Nguyen in September 2022. This will be Valle’s fifth defense of her unified titles.
Estrada, ESPN’s No. 5 ranked pound-for-pound fighter, was promoted by Golden Boy until she left to sign a multiyear deal with Top Rank in July 2022, saying at the time, “I wanted more money, what I felt I deserved.”
Valle, the No. 2 ranked fighter in the division behind Estrada, is promoted by Golden Boy and has been on Estrada’s radar since the days when they had the same promoter.
“It’s not personal for her, but it’s personal for me for many reasons,” Estrada said during a news conference to announce the fight on Wednesday. “I’m competitive. I’m hungry to become undisputed. This is the fight that I’ve been trying to make and wanting to make since I was with Golden Boy Promotions around the time they first signed me.”
Costa Rica’s Valle noted she’s been working hard to this moment, fighting in different divisions to become one day undisputed, and added that the rivalry is not personal, it’s just business.
“I just want to be a champion,” Valle said. “I want to be undisputed. Seniesa has two titles. That’s what I’m looking for. Not her. Simply the world titles is what I’m looking for. That’s what I’ve been working towards for many years.”