Top Rank promoter Bob Arum expects big things in 2016 from featherweight prospect Oscar Valdez and Jose Benavidez Jr., who holds an interim junior welterweight title.

To get them ready for it Arum has put them both in separate 10-round fights on the same “Solo Boxeo Tecate” card on Dec.12 (UniMas) at the Tucson Convention Center in Tucson, Arizona, close to the hometowns of both boxers.

Valdez (17-0, 15 KOs), 24, a two-time Olympian from Nogales, Mexico, just over the border from Tucson, will face the Ernie Sanchez (15-6-1, 6 KOs), 23, of the Philippines. Benavidez (23-0, 16 KOs), 23, of Phoenix, will fight a nontitle bout at welterweight against 38-year-old Brazilian journeyman Sidney Siqueira (26-10-1, 17 KOs), who has lost two decisions in a row.

“Valdez is going into a position next year where we’ll really move him and we wanted him to fight in December,” Arum said. “He’s fighting a good Filipino guy. Benavidez is also going to be stepping up next year, maybe against [world titleholder Viktor] Postol or [world titleholder] Terence Crawford. So he needs a tune-up fight and rather than give him one early next year, we’re giving him one at the end of this year.”

Typically, the UniMas cards are 90-minute telecasts and won’t accommodate two fights scheduled for 10 rounds. Arum said this card will be the exception and is scheduled for two hours.

“We’ll look for Valdez to fight a good contender or a title fight next year and HBO is behind him,” Arum said.

With Adrien Broner bizarrely being elevated to so-called “super champion” status, Benavidez has been ordered to face Michele Di Rocco (40-1-1, 18 KOs), 33, of Italy, for the vacant “regular” title, a bout Arum said he would make in 2016. A win against Di Rocco would propel Benavidez into the bigger bouts Arum mentioned.

“That’s not an expensive fight and we would look to put it on Manny’s undercard,” Arum said of the Di Rocco fight, which he’d like to schedule on Manny Pacquiao’s April 9 HBO PPV show.