TOKYO, Jan. 3rd – Eleven hours and 45 minutes is a long time for an internet boxing writer to fly for only 72 seconds of ring action.
“My son” Edwin Valero, the WBA 130-pound title holder and undefeated knockout artist extraordinaire, only needed one minute and 12 seconds to dispatch of Mexico’s Michael Lozada in front of about 5,000 fans at the Ariake Coliseum in the co-featured bout to a stirring WBC 115-pound title affair between “interim champ” Cristian Mijares and former titlist Katsushige Kawashima.
However, there are no complaints about the brevity of Valero’s performance from Yours Truly. Tokyo is a beautiful and captivating city and the hospitality of the co-promoter of the bout, Teiken Boxing Promotions, has been second to none. This was my first venture to Japan, but I promise that it will not be my last, especially if Valero, who has now scored 19 first-round KOs in his 21 bouts, continues to make his home in Tokyo.
If the quality of his opposition does not take a quantum leap forward, he will likely continue to crush fighters in less than a round. Conceivably, the 25-year-old Venezuelan could fight every other week like the old time champions used to. In today’s market and industry that kind of schedule for a world title holder with ties to TV is impossible, but it is feasible for Valero to fight every other month, or every third month.
An ultra-busy schedule, along with a steady increase in the talent and experience of his opponents, is the only way the boxing world is going to be able to gauge any sort of improvement in the power-punching southpaw, because despite the “Dougie’s Seal of Approval”, the jury is still out on Valero.
The skepticism on Valero is due in part to the fact that many U.S. fight fans and boxing media have still never seen one of his fights in its entirety. If they have seen one or two of his fights, they probably saw a pixilated little image on YouTube.com and what they were able to make out of the ‘V-nom’ was far from impressive.
In fact, what they saw was downright amateurish and sloppy if those fights were Valero’s first two bouts in Japan – a one-round stoppage of popular local journeyman Hironori “Hero” Bando in Yokohama in September of ’05, and a second-round drubbing of Mexico’s rugged Genaro Trazancos in Kobe last March.
Regular readers of MaxBoxing were told by a certain bespectacled ponytail-wearing fight scribe that Valero was not only a future world champ, but a potential superstar; however what they saw on YouTube was a 130-pound version of Ricardo Mayorga. What were they to believe? What a so-called expert wrote (or predicted) or their own two eyes?
Valero didn’t look like Mayorga vs. Lozada, but he didn’t resemble a 130-pound Donald Curry, in terms of his technique, either.
As promised, he took his time with the 23-year-old Tijuana native, holding back his heavy hands for about 20 seconds (which must have felt like an eternity to Valero). However, Lozada wasn’t letting his hands go, either, deciding to backpedal in hopes of luring the title holder into making a mistake with his first strike that he could capitalize on.
Valero’s first strike was a straight left hand that dropped Lozada – hard. The young man barely made it to his feet near a neutral corner at referee Rafael Ramos’s count of eight. Instead of moving laterally, Lozada, still on unsteady legs, foolishly walked towards Valero, where he absorbed a one-two combination that put him down again. This time, Ramos waved the bout off rather than issue a futile count.
Valero was brutally effective, but he was far from perfect in the execution of his execution. He lunged forward with his jab and straight left. He squared up in front of Lozada while in pursuit and ate a right hand en route to devouring the poor kid.
“My opponent was very young,” Valero told the crowd during an in-ring interview with one of the commentators from TV Tokyo, a terrestrial network that televised the event. “I was hoping to have an interesting fight that lasted a few rounds because he was hungry.”
Was Valero hungry for another first-round KO?
“No,” he told the audience. “I wanted to get more experience in the ring with this fight. I’ve been working on my defense in the gym and I wanted to practice it in this fight. A first-round KO was not on my mind when I got in the ring.”
Don’t believe it for a Tokyo second, folks. Valero is all about instant gratification, which for him is immediate destruction of his opponent, once he steps into that ring. He’s more than happy to work on his defense and technique – but only in the gym.
Valero’s storied sparring sessions at various Southern California gyms are the primary reason I had – and still have – so much belief in him and his potential. Unfortunately, only a handful of Los Angeles-area boxers, boxing trainers, gym rats, and writers witnessed Valero’s sparring sessions vs. the likes of Juan Lazcano, Mike Anchondo, Urbano Antillon, Jose Armando Santa Cruz, and Jesus Soto-Karass on a regular basis when the ‘V-nom’ was based in Southern California from mid-2003 to early 2005.
However, now that Valero is under promotional contract with Akihiko Honda, the president of Teiken and perhaps the most influential and respected man in Japanese boxing, living in Tokyo and training at the Teiken gym, others are getting a look at “my son” – and becoming believers.
Mr. Honda, who had his doubts about Valero even after signing him, is a believer after witnessing many days of his two-month training camp, which included around 190 rounds of sparring.
“Valero’s the best of all the world champions I’ve seen train at [the Teiken] gym,” Honda said, which is high praise considering that the Teiken Boxing Club, which was founded in the 1930s by his father, is the oldest in the country and has been the home of not only the best fighters from Japan but to many world champions from other nations who made their way through the Land of the Rising Sun such as Mike Tyson back in 1988 and ’90.
Joe Koizumi is another recent Valero convert. The Tokyo-based veteran boxing scribe (manager and matchmaker) penned a feature for Fightnews.com last month entitled “Valero looks monsterous!” in which he detailed some of the Teiken gym sparring action between Valero and his own fighter Randy Suico, a recent lightweight title challenger, and Mexico’s Arturo Moura, who will fight WBC 140-pound titlist Junior Witter in two weeks.
“…this reporter has watched [Valero’s] tremendous physical energy in his 12-round sparring sessions straight on several occasions,” Koizumi wrote. “Valero is not only a hard-hitter but also a smart footworker… the Venezuelan showed he could take punch and cleverly moved his position not to receive any follow-up combinations with quick sidestepping or circling. He apparently dominated all sparring sessions without doubt. [He] visibly made a rapid progress in combination punching and defensive skills.”
After watching one particular session, veteran trainer Manny Siaca Sr., who was in town work Juan Landaeta’s corner for the Venezuelan’s rematch with Japanese star Koki Kameda, told Honda that Valero “can beat every top fighter in the world from 130 to 140 pounds”.
“At the time he told me, I believed him,” said Honda the day before Valero’s fight with Lozada. “But a week later, in the later part of December, Valero changed. He stopped boxing in the sparring sessions. I’m not so sure if THAT Valero can beat the best in his division, never mind the higher weight classes.
“I’m not sure which Valero will show up tomorrow.”
Which version of Valero showed up yesterday?
Seventy-two seconds is not long enough to tell.
LAND OF THE RISING ‘SON’
What is easy to tell is that living in Tokyo has been a good for Valero.
Being part of a professional organization like Teiken returned the consistency and world-class level of sparring that was missing from his training routine since he left the Los Angeles area to return to Venezuela in early 2005.
“I was suffering in Venezuela because of the lack of sparring,” Valero told MaxBoxing after his weigh-in at the Tokyo Dome Hotel Tuesday afternoon. “The main reason I was not on point for the Mosquera fight was lack of sparring; not the right sparring. I was sparring with little guys, who I couldn’t let my hands go against and guys who were too big for me who were not very good.
“Aside from the sparring, it was difficult just to get to the gym. I lived a ways from the gym and the traffic jams in Venezuela were terrible. Having to drive to the gym was stressful. Here in Tokyo, I live right next to the gym. I walk two blocks and I’m there. And there’s a variety of good fighters from around the world at the Teiken gym.”
Teiken gym trainer Sendai Tanaka, who co-trains Marco Antonio Barrera, has joined Venezuelan trainer Jorge Zerpa in training Valero. Tanaka, who is known for his prowess in working the mitts with world-class fighters, is helping to sharpen up Valero’s technique, which has clearly fallen off in recent years.
Being around countryman Jorge Linares, the undefeated junior lightweight prospect who is promoted by Honda and is one of the better young technicians in the sport, has also been good for Valero. Not because the 21-year-old boxer sets an example of measured offense and technical control in the gym, but because of the way the he relates to the local media and public.
Linares is humble, accessible and charming to the press and to fight fans, who are beginning to accept him after four years of living here (which is very rare for them to do with foreign-born boxers no matter how long they have lived in the country). He also speaks a fair amount of Japanese, something the locals appreciate.
Valero will probably never emulate Linares’ careful approach to boxing but the younger fighter’s public relations skills are beginning to rub off on him.
At the end of his post-fight interview in the ring following the Lozada KO, Valero told the crowd in Japanese: “Thank you, Japan. I love you all!”
The good folks of Japan may except Valero’s “love” or politely dismiss it, but at least they know who he is, what he looks like and how he fights if they are boxing fans.
Valero has received more media exposure in Japan than anywhere else. All three of his fights in Japan were televised on network TV and his title-winning effort vs. Vicente Mosquera, which took place in Panama, was shown on the subscription cable network WOWWOW.
Since moving to Tokyo more photos have been taken, published and distributed of Valero than before or after all of his previous fights combined. Check out these photos, taken before and after the Lozada fight, that are currently posted on Teiken’s official website (maintained by the honorable Mr. Takaaki Yamamoto) http://teiken.com/newspage/index.html and Boxeo-Boxing.com http://boxeo-boxing.com/galerias/galeriavalerolozada.html.
THE FIGHT OF THE NIGHT
Katsugishe Kawashima was valiant in losing his rematch with WBC 115-pound titlist Cristian Mijares, but the 25-year-old Mexican was simply brilliant in out-boxing, weathering a mid-rounds storm from the Japanese warrior and eventually grinding down the 32-year-old veteran to a 10th-round stoppage.
Mijares, who improved to 30-3-1 (11), is like a 115-pound southpaw version of Floyd Mayweather Jr. – not the safety first pot-shot specialist we currently see at 147 pounds; I’m comparing fresh-faced lad to the surgically affective and defensively astute boxer-puncher version of the Pretty Boy we saw at 130 pounds.
Yeah, Mijares, who is promoted by Nacho Huizar, is THAT talented and skilled. Against, Kawashima, who he beat by split decision in their first encounter that took place last September, Mijares showed that he can stick and move with expert precision or stand and trade effectively without getting caught clean. He alternated between an outside and inside fight, more than willing to engage with Kawashima, until the experienced Japanese brawler simply ran out of gas and could no longer protect himself from the younger man’s endless combinations.
It wasn’t a one-sided fight. Kawashima staged a mini rally in rounds six, seven and eight – rounds that Mijares abandoned the feints, shoulder rolls and upper-body movement that served him so well in the first five rounds.
Huizar admits that Mijares is a work in progress, but he’s still about as proud of the kid as I am of “my son”.
Mijares is not ready for the likes of Jorge Arce or Vic Darchinyan – yet. But give him two or three more fights and I think he’ll have the seasoning he needs to handle those two power-punching brutes. I would favor him over Fernando Montiel, Alex Munoz and Jose Navarro right now.
MR. HONDA’S RISING SONS
After the Tuesday’s final press conference and weigh-in, I visited the Teiken gym, located on the second floor of an office building in the Kagurazaka section of downtown Tokyo, to watch the 22-0 Linares train.
While the Venezuelan prodigy, whose first fight of ’07 will be on February 3rd (possibly against Argentine veteran Juan Gerardo Cabrera), impressed me with his accuracy of his punches and the fluidity of his footwork, two Japanese fighters who were training in the gym at the same time also caught my eye.
They were Akifumi Shimoda, a 22-year-old junior featherweight prospect with a 14-1 (8) record, and Takehiro Ao, a 22-year-old featherweight prospect with a 13-0 (8) record.
“He is the best young talent in the gym,” Honda proudly said of Shimoda, who is ranked no. 9 and no. 13 in the WBC and WBA’s 122-pound ratings.
Shimoda exhibited extremely fast and accurate punches, but Ao seemed to have that “something” that really can’t be described. He’s got “it”. I don’t know how to put “it” into words, really, but I know it when I see it and Ao, who was a charismatic amateur star, has definitely got it – that special speed, timing, balance, movement, focus, and confident attitude that most future champions possess.
Ao won 69 consecutive amateur fights en route to a 76-3 record and six national titles. His pro debut was televised on network TV.
“He’s like Japan’s Francisco Bojado,” said Honda. “He’s got a lot of natural talent but also a level of fame before he’s really earned it.”
All in good time. Honda plans to put both Shimoda and Ao into Japanese title fights in March and April of this year.
“They are the future,” he said.
