Whicker: Evgeny Gradovich ready for featherweight prospect Oscar Valdez

Evgeny Gradovich has not skipped any steps to get here.

When he moved to Oxnard, he took a rented room in a local family’s house and walked 30 minutes to the Robert Garcia Boxing Authority. After his workout, he would walk all the way back.

“When we got other Russians to come train with us, they showed up in nice cars,” Garcia said, as Gradovich (21-1-1) prepped for Saturday night’s fight with undefeated Oscar Valdez, on the undercard of May Pacquiao’s main event with Tim Bradley.

“Nobody has the dedication the Russians have, believe me. It didn’t take long for him to make an impression.”

In fact, Gradovich was so willing and tough that his training mates began calling him The Mexican Russian. It stuck, and Gradovich won the IBF featherweight title from Billy Dib and defended it for four fights.

He lost it to Lee Selby in May and struggled to win his next two decisions. But he is the most credible hurdle Valdez has faced on the way to assumed stardom.

“It’s a crossroads fight,” promoter Bob Arum said. “This is how you become a star, by taking dangerous fights and coming through. It’s always been like that. Oscar De La Hoya and Floyd Mayweather took chances, too.”

Egis Klimas managed Gradovich and light heavyweight champ Sergei Kovalev. He and trainer Don Tuer spotted Gradovich in a Russian touament.

“He lost,” Klimas said, “but Don said he still liked him and wanted him. That’s when we moved him to Don’s camp.”

It wasn’t a short move. Gradvovich is from the Ural Mountains in Siberia. Tuer’s camp was in Arapahoe, N.C., near the Atlantic coast, but no day at the beach.

“You go in the woods and see this hut,” Klimas said. “They’ve got the biggest bugs there I’ve ever seen. You might go out to get some sun in the summertime, and here comes a snake. Only two guys I ever brought there lasted a year. They were Kovalev and Gradovich.”

Eventually Gradovich felt he was stagnating and asked Klimas to find another trainer.

“I had already leaed how to speak English here, little by little,” Gradovich said. “When I went to Oxnard, I knew I had to lea a little Spanish, too. I liked it when they called me The Mexican Russian, because I like the Mexican style, but not the new guys. My favorite fighters are Erik Morales, Salvador Sanchez, Marco Antonio Barrera. They were more tactical fighters.”

“Gradovich is a trainer’s dream,” Klimas said. “He never complains. I gave him $100 one time, and then he was going to the Teddy Atas Foundation dier and I offered to give him $200 so he could get something at the mall. He said, no, he was good, because I had already given him money last week. That’s very unusual. He said, ‘When the time comes, I will make some big money.’”

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Valdez is the next Mexican hope for Arum’s Top Rank, and he has looked the part. He has 16 knockouts in his 18 victories.

“He hasn’t fought anybody like Gradovich,” Klimas said. “I think we’re going to steal the show.”