{"id":1798,"date":"2010-03-24T00:02:05","date_gmt":"2010-03-24T05:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ringsidereport.com\/?p=1798"},"modified":"2010-03-24T00:02:05","modified_gmt":"2010-03-24T05:02:05","slug":"edwin-valero-bring-on-the-best","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/?p=1798","title":{"rendered":"Edwin Valero: Bring on the Best"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>By Gina L. Caliboso<\/strong><\/p>\n

The KO King.<\/p>\n

Edwin \u201cDinamita\u201d Valero is appropriately titled a knockout puncher because his 27-0, 27 KO\u2019s, record speaks for itself.\u00a0 As the current WBC Lightweight titleholder, he has successfully defended his title twice.\u00a0 But really, the southpaw from Venezuela has not really been tested by the ranks of the lightweights.\u00a0 Until he fights against a higher ranked, highly competitive, skilled boxer such as veterans Juan Manuel Marquez or even Ali Funeka, the 100% KO record stands as a zero record on paper and in competition.<\/p>\n

The 28 year old Valero primarily fought in Japan from 2006 to 2008 when he was under contract to Teiken Promotions based in Tokyo. Valero now makes his home in Las Vegas, Nevada, and signed with Top Rank Promotions.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In August 2006, he successfully defeated Vicente \u201cEl Loco\u201d Mosquera with a 10th round KO and earned the WBA World Super Featherweight title.\u00a0 Mosquera was knocked down twice in the first round and even Valero was knocked down in the 3rd round.\u00a0 After Mosquera, he successfully defended his title four times.\u00a0\u00a0 In defense of his belt, his closest competition came against Nobuhito Honmo, but Valero eventually knocked him out in the 8th round.\u00a0 Valero would vacate the title at super featherweight so he can fight among the lightweights.<\/p>\n

Valero\u2019s first lightweight bout came against Antonio Pitalua for the vacant WBC Lightweight title.\u00a0 In this fight, Pitalua was down three times in round 2 when the ref finally ended the bout.\u00a0 Valero had Pitalua in the corner and reeled off 7 unanswered punches.\u00a0 It was devastating to see Valero go uncontested.\u00a0 It\u2019s been only one year and Valero has successfully defended his title twice.\u00a0 After Pitalua, Valero fought against Hector Velasquez, 51-14, 35 KO\u2019s in December 2009.\u00a0 Valero just went all out against Velasquez and the corner couldn\u2019t send out the beaten fighter for the 7th round.\u00a0 In February of this year, Antonio DeMarco, 23-2, 17 KO\u2019s, lasted 2 rounds longer into the 9th round, but his corner called the fight.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It can\u2019t be argued that Valero has punching power, but it\u2019s going to take a lot more than a record to determine his real ability.\u00a0 Valero can only get better, but like all fighters, his ability to evolve into a better boxer must be determined by the quality of fights he chooses.\u00a0 Up to now, he hasn\u2019t defeated anyone that can give him the proper competition to show what he can really do.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Valero needs a fight against a top lightweight.\u00a0 But this is where he can proceed to dominate the division or take the leap into the light welterweight division.\u00a0 His last lightweight opponent DeMarco ranked #15.\u00a0 Valero ranks #2.\u00a0 Currently, Juan Manuel Marquez ranks as the #1 lightweight.\u00a0 Even at 36, Marquez faces a path into retirement, but a fight against Valero wouldn\u2019t be a bad thing. In fact, it would be great to see veteran Marquez rejuvenate the ending stage of a career by beating the upstart Valero with a highly competitive boxing match.
\nWho else can Valero consider fighting in the lightweight divison?\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s Michael Katsidis ranked #7, Ali Funeka ranked #6, and also Joan Guzman ranked #5.\u00a0 All of these fighters are good boxers with comparable records to Valero.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll throw another fighter to this mix, there\u2019s also 11th ranked Marco Antonio Barrera.\u00a0 Barrera at aged 36 is like Juan Manuel Marquez, on the tail end of a career.\u00a0 Both Barrera and Lopez represent the seasoned classic Mexican style of fighting.\u00a0 I think they would old school Valero over the course of even 10 rounds.<\/p>\n

At this point, I\u2019d also offer that Valero\u2019s real edge is psychological.\u00a0 As fighters reveal a part of themselves in each fight, whether or a win or a loss, fighters take each fight one at a time. Valero\u2019s fight record is sheer intimidation because all you can see are KO\u2019s in the 1st round as far back as 2002.\u00a0 He went into the 2nd round for the first time in 2006. As the stakes have become larger in defense of both his super featherweight and lightweight titles, Valero continues to win. He must be doing something right to score the KO each time.\u00a0 But he can\u2019t win that way every time.\u00a0 And, a fighter that comes up against him can\u2019t be physically or psychologically intimidated by him either.<\/p>\n

As I see, Valero has absolute fearlessness in his attack.\u00a0 He keeps going forward and he wears down his opponents with barrages of punches to the body and to the head.\u00a0 As a southpaw, he primarily scores KO\u2019s with a well-timed powerful left hand, either an uppercut or a hook, and it lands straight into his opponent.\u00a0 Valero has a great power cross.\u00a0 In his last two fights, he wore down his opponents I think, more psychologically because he boxes like he has nothing to lose \u2013 a boxer\u2019s confidence.\u00a0 I\u2019m impressed by his record more so than his fighting ability.\u00a0 For me, fighters must have a complete package of skills to draw upon.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Valero stands straight up with no visible defensive ability.\u00a0 But that\u2019s not a palpable defense to think that your opponent will wear out before you do.\u00a0 Valero\u2019s relaxed hand speed comes from his hips \u2013 all power, so a skilled, seasoned boxer, can easily counter the hands down approach and beat him.\u00a0 For Valero, a lack of a defense can mess with an opponent\u2019s head because he still pulls off speedy and powerful combinations.\u00a0 And, Valero lacks any ring generalship.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s that saying, \u201cIf it ain\u2019t broke, why fix it?\u201d\u00a0 It\u2019s true to a degree, but in boxing?\u00a0 That\u2019s just stupid.\u00a0 A boxer gets better to not get broken in the ring.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure any fighter will take a KO over a unanimous decision, but boxing has always been a battle of wills contested over 10 or 12 rounds.\u00a0 A boxer gets better by boxing more.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Up to now, Valero hasn\u2019t fought against a fighter of Marquez or Barrera caliber.\u00a0 For now, I\u2019d offer that Valero is the real deal, but he needs to prove his talent more, push his KO record ability aside, and take a fight against a boxer that will make him get only better.<\/p>\n

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\u00a0 By Gina L. Caliboso The KO King. Edwin \u201cDinamita\u201d Valero is appropriately titled a knockout puncher because his 27-0, 27 KO\u2019s, record speaks for itself.\u00a0 As the current WBC Lightweight titleholder, he has successfully defended his title twice.\u00a0 But really, the southpaw from Venezuela has not really been tested by the ranks of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[105,152,228,477],"class_list":["post-1798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-boxing-news","tag-boxing","tag-champion","tag-edwin-valero","tag-manny-pacquiao"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ringsidereport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}