Former featherweight champion Oscar Valdez is inching closer to officially becoming a junior lightweight.

Valdez (26-0, 20 KOs) will make his 130-pound debut on Nov. 30 against Andres Gutierrez (38-2-1, 25 KOs) in a 10-round fight at the Cosmopolitan in Las Vegas, and the bout will air on ESPN+ as part of Top Rank Boxing’s programming, Valdez’s manager Frank Espinoza told BoxingScene.com.

The 28-year-old Valdez is a two-time Mexican Olympian who made six successful defenses of his 126-pound WBO title before vacating his crown in August and moving up in weight.

Espinoza said the plan is for Valdez to look great against Gutierrez in order to have their sights set on fighting Top Rank promoted champions in Jamel Herring, who holds the WBO title, and Miguel Berchelt, who holds the WBC crown. Both Berchelt and Herring have upcoming tests of their own they’d first need to pass in order for a Valdez title fight to become a reality.

Gutierrez’s lone two losses have come to the hands of Abner Mares in 2017 and Cristian Mijares in 2016. The 26-year-old fellow Mexican fighter is riding a three-fight winning streak and coming off a June win against veteran Tomas Rojas since dropping to Marez.

Valdez has two wins in 2019 against Jason Sanchez and Carmine Tommasone.

Manouk Akopyan is a sports journalist and member of the Boxing Writers Assn. of America since 2011. He has written for the likes of the Guardian, USA Today, Philadelphia Inquirer, Men’s Health and NFL.com and currently does TV commentary for combat sports programming that airs on Fox Sports. He can be reached on Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and YouTube at @ManoukAkopyan or via email at manouk.akopyan@gmail.com.