EDWIN VALERO: NO DEFENCE

Unbeaten two weight world champion Edwin Valero killed himself in custody on April 19th 2010 shortly after he murdered his wife, Jennifer Carolina Viera de Valero. This is not a defence of the man, just a look at the unbeaten boxer, his huge talent and potential within the sport.

A champion at two weights from 2006 to 2010, with a perfect knockout win record, the late Edwin Valero left the world with questions about his ceiling as a boxer, but none about his humanity.

A troubled person, to say the least, Valero would go AWOL to do what he wanted (mainly cocaine and booze) and having suffered a brain injury after a motorbike accident was limited as to where he was licenced to fight, hindering his impact on the world scene.

Anyone with even a rudimentary understanding of the brain will acknowledge that serious trauma and overconsumption of drugs do not make for a balanced person. Edwin Valero was not just a little askew, he was an absolute monster both in and out of the ring.

Sometimes it is hard to separate the artist from the art, but to one extent or another we all turn a blind eye, particularly in boxing. "One of the nice guys" he was not but objectively Edwin Valero was one of the scariest boxers to step into the ring. El Inca, El Dinamita, El Terminator, El Liquidato were Valero’s chosen noms de guerre, but El Diablo probably fits best.

Ruining a record eighteen opponents into oblivion in the first round, Valero’s long, relentless southpaw style battered him into world title contention. You have to see it to believe it. As destructive than Deontay Wilder, but Edwin first stepped into the ring at 127 pounds.

Building a reputation sparring champions and bashing them up, Valero’s professional career became unavoidable at world level. The excitement he promised was pay per view gold.

While not technically sound, particularly while defending, who cared, the slippery Venezuelan was always a danger. Fast fists, high output and a solid chin meant that even if you thought you had the upper hand, both of his mitts disagreed.

In attack Valero carried his southpaw left low, using his right as a range finder, waiting like a shark to bite. When he did, most were cut in half immediately.

In his eighteenth and first (irrelevant) twelve round fight, Whyber Garcia was wiped out by Valero in a WBA Super Featherweight Title eliminator. Next up in March 2006, Genaro Trazancos had the dubious honour of taking El Inca longer than three minutes, lasting almost two of the second stanza.

Following that, though, was reigning WBA champion “El Loco”, Vicente Mosquera. El Loco translates loosely to English as the fool, and in a 2006 up and downer Mosquera hit the canvas twice in the first round, going all guns blazing, potentially foolishly. That translation isn’t correct, though, Mosquera was crazy and it worked for him, delivering Edwin Valero his first and only sit down- in the third round by pure pressure.

The WBA World Super Featherweight Title still went to Edwin Valero, who fought as ever like a maniac. Proving to fans and probably himself he could fight much more than three minutes, a tenth round stoppage win meant the hidden menace could no longer be ignored.

Four defences and many drug binges later, Valero moved up to lightweight. Antonio Pitalua was dropped three times en route to Edwin securing the vacant WBC title. At that point just two wins from his death, Edwin Valero was on the cusp of superstardom. Unfortunately, he was talented but also abhorrent and wrecked more than just his own life.

Were he to hover around lightweight, Valero (who had ample power to move up the scales) would have asked questions of so many lauded fighters of the time. Manny Pacquiao and Floyd Mayweather are obvious but Amir Khan, Ruslan Provodnikov, Jorge Linares and perhaps even Ricky Hatton would also have been mouth-watering clashes at or around super-lightweight.

As it is though, oh what could have been. Edwin Valero, the two weight champion, murderous devil, wreaked more misery out of the ring than in it. Some people don’t deserve their fame and wealth, or at least have it in spite of their actions.

Some people work hard to be very good at something while still being awful. Edwin Valero only proved who he was outside of the ring.