The Shakur Stevenson bout is personal for Oscar Valdez who feels wronged because of a pre-fight narrative

• Oscar Valdez says he's upcoming fight with Shakur Stevenson is personal.
• The undefeated fighter is fed up with accusations he's avoided the fight, and that he's a cheater.

LAS VEGAS — The Shakur Stevenson bout is personal for Oscar Valdez who feels wronged because of a narrative being driven ahead of the landmark unification fight.

The rivalry is red-hot for the Mexican puncher because, as he told Insider this week, he feels Stevenson has portrayed him in a negative light.

Valdez claims he's faced accusations of avoiding this fight and says there was a good reason to when they were at featherweight together, because he was instead chasing bigger and better bouts.

"This is a fight people have been wanting for a long time," the 31-year-old said. "Shakur Stevenson has been mentioning my name since I was a featherweight.

"It got under my skin … [he said] that we were scared, ducking, but that was never the case. We were just always looking for bigger and better fights.

"Now, Shakur is a two-division world champion. It makes perfect sense to determine who is the best fighter at 130-pounds."

It became more personal, Valdez said, because Stevenson was seemingly winning over the court of public opinion as people believed he was scared of fighting him.

Stevenson also claimed Valdez has been "caught cheating" which is a probable reference to Valdez testing positive for the banned stimulant Phentermine in August 2021. Days later, his B-sample tested positive, too.

Valdez said he had "no knowledge" he had taken the substance, CBS Sports reported at the time.

Valdez is not the only member of Team Canelo with Eddy Reynoso to face accusations of cheating because of positive tests. Before Saul Alvarez broke a bone in Billy Joe Saunders' face, the British boxer kept calling Canelo "juicy" in 2021.

Insider asked Valdez about the allegations of cheating leveled at both him and Team Canelo in general.

"You just have to ignore them," Valdez told us. People should know the facts, he said.

"You know, these positives, if you look at from a wide-angle, you know there's a big problem in Mexico with clenbuterol in the meat — it's a clear, clear problem.

"With what Canelo got is unfortunate — just bad luck. In my case, is also bad luck, twice, so people nearly jump to a conclusion that there is cheating, but in reality, this is not the case.

"These clear mistakes can happen to anybody," he said.

Valdez is excited to showcase his skillset Saturday

Regarding Reynoso's work with him in particular, to get him ready for Stevenson, Valdez said he's "excited to show" his skills.

"I can brawl and I can also box. Shakur isn't going to risk it, bang in there, stay toe-to-toe. He'll use his boxing skills, but that's what we'll do as well. We'll be the smarter fighter in a chess game rather than a war."

The Top Rank-organized Valdez vs. Stevenson PPV begins 7 p.m. PT on ESPN Saturday.