Murder, Suicide & Corruption: The Edwin Valero Saga
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By Gina L. Caliboso
Will the saga of Edwin “Dinamita” Valero ever end?
It has now been reported that the relatives of Valero are now ordering his remains to be exhumed in order to prove accusations that Venezuelan authorities may have strangled the boxer while in custody. Just over a month ago, I had written an article on Edwin “Dinamita” Valero, 27-0, 27 KO’s. I kept thinking that if he continued on pace, he may be on par to a potential match up with Manny Pacquiao. But in just one month, the promising boxer with so much potential and knockout power disappeared and the man with drug and alcohol addictions and domestic problems emerged.
Valero admitted to killing his wife and later went on to commit suicide by hanging himself in his jail cell. It ended all so quickly for the fighter and now, as my Managing Editor had so eloquently stated, his final statement to the world is not his contribution to boxing, but rather he is remembered as “a wife beater, murderer, and a coward.”
Even though my thoughts and final words are true and harsh, a question remains if whether boxing will be affected by the absence of Valero. Valero is one of the most recent disappointments to the sport of boxing. I suppose it’s all with a shake of the head and personal question of why in the sport of boxing, Valero’s downward spiral ended so quickly. Could anything be done to have prevented the tragedy from happening?
To recap, Valero’s career was indeed headed in the right direction. In 2009, he had successfully earned the WBC Lightweight Championship against Antonio Pitalua with a 2nd round TKO.
In his first title defense, Valero went on to defeat Hector Velazquez in the 7th round as Velazquez failed to come out of his corner. Finally, in 2010, he defended his belt for the second time against Antonio Demarco. Demarco retired in the 9th round and Valero came away with the victory.
All in all, in a summary of an up and coming fighter, Valero was making the lightweight division all his own with no real competition.
Had Valero continued his winning ways through the lightweight division, he would have had his work cut out for all his potential and promise. He would have had possible matchups against Juan Manuel Marquez, Ali Funeka, and Humberto Soto to name a few. The point of course being that there would have been no shortage of opponents for Valero as his reputation as a boxer was only going to grow along with his boxing skills.
As I look back at all of Valero’s promise, I must admit I’m still processing just how much he did not and could not deal with life outside of the ring. It’s really cliché to say he had it all, fame, promise, future, money, whatever you want to call a life outside of the ring, and in the end, he just couldn’t handle the outside pressure. In the end, a person must be accountable for any choices.
What about the responsibility of Bob Arum and Top Rank? How much responsibility should be placed on a boxer’s inner circle to form an intervention of sorts and make the boxer get back to the business of boxing? Even as the fight in the ring is every boxer for himself, outside of the ring, the boxer, and in the case of Valero, had been in a downward spiral of one bad ad situation after another – maybe even denial that as long as Valero was on the correct boxing path towards a bout with Pacquiao, the minor details of alcohol and drug addictions and marital problems will eventually work itself out in the end.
Most recently, MMA fighter Tito Ortiz was hit with accusations of domestic violence by his girlfriend Jenna Jameson along with his own accusations of her drug addiction. Yikes!
I don’t know about you fight fans, but I’m getting a little tired of this. Combat sports athletes have been elevated to a status as my fellow writer, Eoin has mentioned, to the status of being God-like. As a combat sports fan and writer, I’ll clarify my point of view.
I look up to and admire combat sports athletes, but I don’t perceive them as God-like, quite the contrary, boxers and MMA fighters bleed and battle. They battle and bleed in a public arena that not only entertains, but also lets us into a fight between two lifetime training athletes that will engage in a contest of human will and survival. But again, I use the word – HUMAN.
Combat sports athletes wage war, fight, and bleed, and in the end one turns out to be victor. When I watch or cover any fight, it’s the skill and pure fight that elevates these athletes into a different arena, but I never once believe they are beyond human flaw and misbehavior. I question their free will to engage and make decisions towards destructive behaviors that hurt their minds and bodies. I question and get disappointed that they have all been honored with a gift and talent to engage in combat sports for a living, but life outside the fight arena can be difficult for them to handle. Maybe when combat sports athletes mess up, we fight fans just realized this – they are only HUMAN.
Now, going back to Edwin Valero, I don’t think boxing will be affected.
As quickly as he was lost as yet another casualty and statistic of outside of the ring excess, it’s important to take a closer look at the circumstances and if whether at any time he could have been helped. I say yes, he could have been helped. All the money. All the promise. It’s all meaningless now. But back when Valero was alive and at his peak, it meant everything to him and his inner circle. In which case, something or someone should have helped him.
It’s all hindsight now, of course, but regardless, we can only learn and hope that there are people in place that will prevent such a tragedy to occur again.