Brian's Boxing Mailbag (Edwin Valero Murders Wife. Manny Pacquiao Fight May Never Happen Now if Found Guilty.)
By Brian Wilbur
Hello readers, I welcome you to my mailbag, although I wish that the main topic today was not so grim. Various news outlets reported that WBC Lightweight Champion Edwin Valero was arrested in suspicion of murdering his wife. Valero has reportedly admitted guilt already. Words cannot describe how disgusted I am with this maniac. He had the potential to be one of the best boxers of his generation. He was a true phenom with his record of 27-0 with 27 knockouts, most of them being in the first round. His legend was growing by the day despite limited press and not being licensed to fight in the United States.
First he was accused of assaulting his mother and sister. Then he was accused of beating his wife. He was sent to rehab to deal with his issues but clearly the rehab did not help at all. Assuming that justice is served, Valero will spend the rest of his life in a jail cell, ending his could-have-been all time great boxing career.
Unfortunately this sad and revolting news overshadows the brilliant win by Sergio Martinez over Kelly Pavlik to capture the Middleweight Championship of the world. A couple emails this week talk about that fight, Lucian Bute, and David Haye, but mostly I give fans an outlet to voice their anger and frustration at Edwin Valero.
If you have thoughts that you would like to share about this, or any other boxing related news, shoot me and email.
Edwin Valero, WTF!!!
Who the hell kills their wife when they have the world in the palm of their hands? The psychopath just couldn’t get his life together. What a douche bag coward. I was once a huge fan of his too.
-Dominick Smith
Dominick,
Valero was obviously a deeply disturbed individual. He had substance abuse problems to go along with an explosive and self-destructive personality. Perhaps he should have been punished more severely for his past behavior and this could have been prevented. The guy has no excuses. He is the scum of the Earth.
Why Do the Most Talented Always Fail?
It’s clear this guy is a degenerate who deserves to rot in prison for the rest of his life, or be put to death for his crimes. What a waste of talent. Why is it that the most talented athletes always screw up their lives. Just looking at boxing, guys like Tony Ayala, Ike Ibeabuchi, and to a lesser degree Mike Tyson had all the talent in the world but couldn’t keep themselves together mentally and ended up completely screwing up their potentially great careers, and screwing up their lives.
I’ll just never understand it. I am heart broken for the family of the victim.
-Eddie
Eddie,
Sports are just as much mental as they are physical. Talent cannot take you to the top. Not even talent and hard work can take you to the top. Some kind of sanity is needed or else you turn out like the creeps and losers that you mentioned above. We are left thinking what could have been.
Can Valero Get Off?
So I know that Valero has allegedly admitted to murdering his wife in the hotel room, but do you think he has any chance of walking away from this? This is Venezuela you know, with maniac Hugo Chavez ruling. Valero might be a big enough star that Chavez allows him to get off by making up an alibi or something. Do you think this can happen?
-Roger
Roger,
God, I hope that Valero does not get away with murder. As much as I would selfishly like to see him fight on, he does not deserve to ever see the sunlight again. Not even Hugo Chavez is evil enough to let Valero get away with murdering his wife (let’s hope anyway). We’ll wait and see what happens next.
Selfish, Violent, Despicable Act
Edwin Valero and his wife had little kids together. Now they don’t have a father or a mother, very sad. How could he do something like this disregarding the impact on his children? Do you think he actually had brain damage from either his motorcycle accident or from fighting? What else could have provoked him to do this? Do you think his wife cheated on him or something? I can’t understand…
-Double R
Double R,
No, I don’t think he had any type of brain damage. He’s just an evil violent human being with anger management issues. I don’t care if his wife had cheated on him with every man in Venezuela, there is no excuse or possible reason that he should have resorted to murder.
Wrong About Pavlik vs. Martinez
Hey Brian,
Just wanted to say I told you so about the Sergio Martinez vs. Kelly Pavlik fight. I emailed you a couple weeks ago calling Martinez as a the winner. At the time you did not give a pick but I saw your prediction and you went with Pavlik. Should have listened to me! Martinez is a badass complete fighter. He can box, punch, defend, move, whatever you need. Martinez came out of nowhere. I first saw him when he fought Kermit Cintron, but he is legit!!!
-Richard Tresser
Richard,
You know my instincts told me to go with Sergio Martinez that fight. He had the perfect, smart boxing style to break down and punish Pavlik. I said that in my Team RSR fight pick too. Looking back I totally contradicted myself. I said that the styles match up strongly favored Martinez yet I picked Pavlik anyway.
I think I was too caught up with Pavlik’s status as the highly respected champion. Kelly had a slight size advantage and was undefeated at middleweight. I got too caught up in that hype to pull the trigger on picking Martinez even though I analyzed the fight correctly in my head. Good call on your pick Richard. Feel free to send me your fight picks in the future.
Bute Better Than Super Six
Lucian Bute made Edison Miranda look like a chump, knocking him out with one uppercut in the 3rd. He is better than anyone in the Super Six tournament I think. Shame that Showtime did not invite him. Heck, they didn’t even invite him as an alternate, going with Allan Green instead. That doesn’t make any sense to me.
-Arthur
Arthur,
Bute reminds me a of a young Joe Calzaghe with power. He has a bright future ahead of him. Whoever comes away the winner of the Super Six tournament will have a very formidable opponent in Lucian Bute. Showtime didn’t invite Bute because he did not fit into the market that they were trying to tap into allegedly, even though he had the credentials. Since the tournament started Bute has had some of his best victories (wins over Librado Andrade and Edison Miranda). And the reason that Allan Green was chosen as an alternate is because he was available whereas Bute had a fight already scheduled.
So is Bute better than all of the guys in the Super Six? He would definitely have been one of the favorites to win if he had been invited. Andre Ward and Andre Dirrell could give Bute problems with their slick boxing styles. I would confidently pick Bute over Mikkel Kessler, Carl Froch, and Allan Green. A fight with Arthur Abraham would be a toss up in my opinion.
My question is what will Bute do until the Super Six is over when he can prove himself against these top notch fighters? I guess he could try to unify against newly crowned WBO title holder Robert Stieglitz, or seek out solid contenders like Sakio Bika or Jesse Brinkley. Other than that he will simply have to wait.
More On David Haye
Hello Brian,
I was talking about David Haye vs. John Ruiz the other day in your mailbag, I didn’t explain much, why I still had doubts. First of all, the fight John Ruiz had prior to the Haye fight, against an unknown fighter was quite poor in my opinion. So I had big doubts about Ruiz before the fight. Even so I did envision Ruiz giving him problem’s. One reason was Haye’s fight with Giacobbe Fragomeni, who pressured him and gave him problems. I figured that since Ruiz was bigger and would pressure Haye and he’s stronger than Fragomeni.
Haye’s style somewhat gives the illusion he his in trouble sometimes, I would have thought that if he fought his usual way he would get in to trouble with Ruiz. But he showed up, fought like usual and it even seemed easy. He was breathing hard though after the first rounds which didn’t look good. Regarding the Carl Thompson loss I agree with the email from last week’s bag (if I understood it correctly) that Haye’s knockout loss was more because he ran out of gas than his chin. He didn’t seem unconscious or anything he looked more like Wladimir vs Brewster I, completely gassed out. I have a lot of faith in Haye, because I don’t think anyone is going to become undisputed Cruiserweight Champion like Haye became if he didn’t have a lot of talent, toughness and strength.
So I am very interested in Haye’s career and so far he has backed up the big words. But I still think Wladimir will win against Haye. As good as Haye is, I just think Wladimir is better, and much, much stronger. Some of the shots Ruiz was landing made me think Wladimir will land his shots. I know my next statement is a little strange, but I’m starting to think Haye has a better chance against Vitali. Wladimir seems to me to be peaking right now but Vitali is getting older and closer to the end of his career and his last fight was not so impressive than the fight before that saw him having troubles. But one or two fights don’t have to mean anything, styles makes fights etc. But I have a strange
feeling Vitali is getting close to the end.
One point in the end because you mentioned that Haye seemed to be ducking Wladimir. That statement get’s some strengthening by the latest news. Wladimir calls out Haye, and Haye’s trainer answers by saying they like Vitali’s belts better than Wladimir, and that they need to fight each other first (the Klitschko brothers). But before that he had constantly called out Wladimir. Either he’s trying to annoy them or he’s just trying to stay away from them. In my opinion it would be a bad idea for Haye to get more fights in the weight class before Klitschko fight.
-Olafur
Olafur,
I admire David Haye and think he is a good heavyweight fighter, but he is a full step below the Klitschko brothers. Wladimir and Vitali still don’t get as much respect as they deserve by many and I just can’t understand it. They not only fight and beat top 10 opposition, they dominate to the point where they hardly lose a round. Haye could probably beat 98% of heavyweights out there due to his power and athleticism. David does not necessarily have glaring weaknesses with his size, chin, endurance, or defense, but those are not overwhelming strengths either.
I caught some grief in my inbox for saying that I sense that Haye has some vulnerabilities in his game that have yet to be exposed. When I said that I didn’t mean that he was a bum or not worthy of his title belt. What I meant is that I don’t see him becoming an all time great Heavyweight Champion who is able to overcome every different style. Haye is not that dominant. I think where my reservations come is that he does not look calm during his fights. Guys like Sergio Martinez, Floyd Mayweather, Bernard Hopkins and many others have this calm cool about them when they fight, which makes them appear as if they could fight for 25 rounds if they had to. With Haye he looks tense or nervous and you get the sense that the clock is ticking on his stamina. If he has allowed himself to run out of gas in previous fights then I can see a pressure fighter giving “Hayemaker” issues.
Wladimir Klitschko’s jab, size, and offensive arsenal present a huge challenge for all of his opponents. I haven’t seen much from Haye that makes me think he can come close to overcoming that. Haye’s best chance at beating Wladimir is to try to bum rush him like Corrie Sanders did and score an early round KO before Klitschko has a chance to warm up.
I see your point regarding Wladimir potentially being a tougher opponent for Haye than Vitali despite that notion going against conventional wisdom. We sometimes forget how old Vitali Klitschko is because of his strong performances against much younger contenders. A young energetic fighter can sometimes test the old bones of a superior fighter. Whereas Wladimir Klitschko is in his prime right now and has never been better. His defense has improved tremendously since his last loss, with punching accuracy that always finds openings for huge power punches. If Haye doesn’t hurt Klitschko early he will be a sitting duck for those power punches and surely be knocked out.
I heard about Haye’s camp asking for the Klitschko brothers to fight each other before fighting him. I hope that Haye was joking because he sounds like a chicken fight-ducker with that attitude, knowing that the brothers will never fight each other.
I will end here folks. Send in your emails for next week. I look forward to hearing from you.