Oscar Valdez has a new foe and date for his featherweight title defense

Oscar Valdez’s originally scheduled featherweight title defense in Tucson has been shifted to Feb. 2 at the Dallas Cowboys’ practice facility, Ford Center at the Star in Frisco, Texas.

The ESPN-televised card, to start at 6 p.m. Pacific, is scheduled now to serve as a four-fight joint showing that will include ESPN-Plus coverage that will start at 9 p.m. Pacific and close with the light-heavyweight title rematch between champion Eleider Alvarez (24-0, 12 KOs) and Russia’s Sergey Kovalev (32-3-1, 28 KOs).

San Diego-trained Valdez (24-0, 19 knockouts) has a new opponent. He’ll fight Italy’s Carmine Tommasone (19-0, five KOs) after planned challenger Andoni Gago fell off the Tucson card for undisclosed reasons.

The fight for the vacant International Boxing Federation lightweight belt will also be on the Valdez-ESPN portion. In that bout, Ghana’s Richard Commey (27-2, 24 KOs) meets Russia’s Isa Chaniev (13-1, six KOs).

The Commey-Chaniev winner is expected to fight two-belt lightweight champion Vasiliy Lomachenko in a unification April 12 at Staples Center.

Elite prospect Teofimo Lopez (11-0, nine KOs), coming off a knockout-of-the-year flattening of lightweight Mason Menard on Dec. 8 at the Madison Square Garden Theater, will start the ESPN-Plus portion, according to promoter Top Rank.

[email protected]

Twitter: @latimespugmire