World champion boxer Edwin Valero, the WBC lightweight belt holder, was arrested today in Venezuela on suspicion of stabbing his wife to death.
She was young, beautiful, and clearly with the wrong man. The agony of her horrific murder will be compounded for family and relatives because she bore the suspected wife-killer two beautiful children.
Boxing takes in all types: the misfits, the abused, the ones who simply start out on the wrong side of the tracks, but for whom the sport provides support and a way of reversing, often, the misfortune they may have suffered early in their lives. This case leaves one feeling sick to the stomach.
Valero had been tracking a contest with unbeaten Filipino fighting phenomenon Manny Pacquiao, currently electioneering in the Philippines, with his wife Jinkee, in Sarangani, the province where his wife was born.
Judging by today?s arrest, there will be no superfight down the line between the two men. Valero was gifted between the ropes, unbeaten in 27 professional contests, yet deeply troubled outside it.
Valero, who has suffered from alcohol and drug addiction, and brain damage after a motorcycle crash, last defended the WBC lightweight title against Antonio DeMarco in February this year, in Mexico.
Arguably, there were signs of danger ahead. Last summer he was reported to have assaulted his own mother and sister, but there were no charges filed and Valero had claimed they were rumours put out by his enemies.
His wife Yennifer Carolina was also admitted to hospital two weeks ago with bruises and a collapsed lung. Valero, 28, if found guilty, is likely to spend a very long time in a Venezuelan cage. Ugly, very ugly indeed.
