![]() ![]() ![]() "If the opportunity arises to fight either (Manny Pacquiao or Juan Miguel Marquez), I would like Marquez," said Valero, whom you'd never guess was a professional fighter if you saw him in street clothes and the eyeglasses he wears. In any case, Valero says he is ready for the marquee names in boxing. In rating Valero fifth among pound-for-pound punchers (before the Pitalua fight), Ring magazine said he is "a skilled boxer who's fallen in love with his own power and chooses not to use much science." Hey, 25 KOs in 25 fights, you can't argue with that. In two title defenses as junior lightweight champ, he stopped Zaid Zavaleta in three and Takehiro Shimada in seven. Valero formerly held the WBA junior lightweight title before moving up to the lightweight division, where the big names and big fights are. After a quiet, feel-out first round, Valero, a southpaw with knockout power in either hand, decked Pitalua three times in the second before referee Larry Cole stopped the carnage 49 seconds in. Pitalua has a reputation of being a tough guy himself, having kayoed 40 of his 48 opponents while compiling a 46-2 record going into the Valero fight, which was for the WBC lightweight title vacated by Manny Pacquiao (who fights Ricky Hatton May 2).īut Pitalua was no match for Valero. But Valero has continued to punch out opponents with monotonous regularity as the quality rises. And yes, piling up a lot of knockouts in Venezuela doesn't necessarily mean a lot. Yes, Arum is his promoter and expected to say wonderful things about his fighters. You've seen the emergence of a star with super powers in both hands, someone who can handle any lightweight in the world." "What you have seen tonight is something really special, something out of the ordinary. "I believe in Edwin Valero," said Arum after the Pitalua fight. Well, he was granted a boxing license by the Texas athletic commission in time to win his second world title two weeks ago, when he annihilated Antonio Pitalua in two rounds. Valero is the fighter from Venezuela who knocked out his first 18 opponents in the first round, but was unable to get a license to fight in the United States because of an irregularity in a 2004 brain scan due to an old motorcycle accident injury. Now that he has signed up with Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, we should finally get a look at Edwin Valero, who just may be the most exciting fighter on the planet. ![]()
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