No one has to inform Edwin Valero that life?s not fair.
For all the big talk, the cult figure status and the 24-0 all by knockout record, the lightweight from Venezuela is relegated to being a lounge act compared to Manny Pacquiao.
And, like every lounge act, Valero has to have a signature song. In his case, it should be ?Me & My Shadow? directed at the uber celebrity/superstatus of Pacman. It?s a shadow he may never escape unless and until he squares off against Manny.
Pachuggers dismiss Valero as Manny once did, saying he has whipped a collection of tuk tuk drivers. I wonder if that?s a mistake like when Greg Haugen, a lightweight champ, insulted Mexican icon Julio Cesar Chavez as having beaten ?a bunch of Tijuana taxi drivers.?
After Chavez spindled, folded and mutilated the rugged Haugen before a small gathering of 136,000 at Mexico City?s Estadio Azteca, a black and blue Haugen smiled through his lumps and bruises and said, ?Those must have been some tough bleeping cab drivers!?
As far as the respective status of Valero and Megamanny, it reminds me of the good, old days when ?the Boys? were running the Vegas Strip. I?m talking about the halcyon daze and nights of Frank, Sammy, Dean and the whole Rat Pack posse.
The Rat Packers always played the big showrooms while competent but lower case acts were confined to the busy but low-paying casino lounges.
If Sinatra was the main event, playing the big room filled with high rollers and their dolls and molls, then Sonny King was in the lounge. Or you might find Sonny Charles & The Checkmates crooning ?Black Pearl? with a steady gig in a small room. A perennial lounge favorite was Sum Butera & The Witnesses.
Valero is age 27 but he remains a lounge lizard compared to Megamanny. Pacman has the big stage at the MGM Grand May 2 against another international showstopper, Ricky Hatton.
Valero, meanwhile, is licensed to box in only one state, Texas, and that?s why he?s fighting Antonio Pitalua in Austin Saturday night for the vacant WBC lightweight trinket.
Yes, it?s a smaller PPV show, staged by Golden Boy even though Valero is under contract to Pacman lead promoter Bob Arum, but it?s strictly bush league compared to Pacman-Hatton.
When Manny and Ricky strolled the celebrity red carpet Monday night in Hollywood, what could the Venezuela slugger been doing in Austin, doing a grip and grin appearance at a Stop & Go or signing autographs at Pecos Bill?s Rib Shack?
The slow rollout of Valero, whose early career brain injury (result of a motorcycle accident) makes jurisdictions reluctant to issue him a license, must be torture for the confident fighter.
Valero is cocky in a good way. He truly believes he can compete with Pacquiao, with Juan Manuel Marquez or any of the other top dogs in his weight range.
Other than some quickie KOs in California back in 2003, the bout with Pitalua for the crown vacated by Pacquiao will be Valero?s first in the United States.
His pro record reads like a well-used passport: Japan, Mexico, Panama, homeland Venezuela, France and Argentina.
Valero is boxing?s answer to the Harlem Globetrotters.
Formerly promoted by Tokyo titan Akihiko Honda, Valero is settling in with Top Rank. He?s got a new manager and he recently dropped trainer Kenny Adams in favor of ex-De La Hoya trainer Robert Alcazar.
What Valero needs most is visibility. He needs to make a statement in the ring against Pitalua.
He may have to fight in Tejas a few more times because Arum is moving slowly on a Nevada application.I hope Valero doesn?t have to tour the spacious Lone Star State the way he has roamed the world with gloves in hand.
It?s time for Valero to pick up the pace and get beyond his ?inside boxing? status.
If he doesn?t accelerate soon, unfortunately, Valero will never play the big rooms.
It must be getting monotonous signing ?Me & My Shadow? all the time but Valero must break out of his low-key mold.
If he doesn?t or he can?t?when his career is done, they?ll call him what he is right now, a lounge act.
(Michael Marley has met and observed Senor Valero up close and personal and finds him to ooze charisma in the ring and out. Question is whether Valero’s shining light will remain hidden under a bushel. This is where Marley blatantly plugs his site, Boxingconfidential.
