Quigg's purse was believed to be far more at around $500,000 plus British TV rights. Valdez was due his highest purse at $420,000, not including the additional $10,000 from Quigg's purse. After a hard fought 12 round battle with saw Valdez break Quigg’s nose and in return Valdez have his own front teeth damaged, the final scorecards read 117-111, 117-111 and 118-110 in favour of the Valdez, thus retaining his WBO title. Quigg suffered a cut over his left eye in round 5 which caused him issues later in the fight whereas Valdez after having his mouth busted, was seen with blood pouring out in the second half of the fight. The difference in the fight was that Valdez had too much hand and foot speed for Quigg and was able unload on multiple punches on Quigg. Valdez's style of a higher punch output also caused him to take a lot of punishment throughout the fight. Valdez was hurt in round 5 from a big left hook from Quigg. In round 11, Valdez hurt Quigg with a hard head shot in the final 20 seconds. It was in round 11 that Quigg began to use his jab more to his own advantage. Valdez was then hurt by a low blow in that round. In round 12, Valdez tied Quigg up frequently and used movement to stay out of trouble. Quigg was humble in defeat stating the better man won, but felt it was closer. ESPN scored the fight for Valdez 115-113. They also reported that Quigg weighed 142.2 pounds compared to Valdez who was 135.6 pounds on fight night. CompuBox numbers showed that Valdez landed 238 of 914 punches thrown (26%), and Quigg landed 143 of his 595 thrown (24%). After the fight Quigg explained the reason he missed weight was because he had fractured his foot four weeks before the fight and unable to run to lose the extra pounds. Valdez visited oral surgeon Dr. Douglas Galen in Beverly Hills the following Monday and had his jaw wired shut. The card was watched by an average 1.1 million viewers on ESPN. On 13 August 2018 it was announced Valdez had left longtime trainer Manny Robles and would instead return to training under Eddy Reynoso, well known for training Saul "Canelo" Álvarez. One of the main reasons for the change was for Valdez to tighten his defence after being involved in slugfests since winning the WBO title.