Edwin Valero proved many of his critics wrong last night, with a dominating performance over Antonio DeMarco. There were even comparisons to an early Pacquiao by the commentating team, which later proved to be unfounded as Valero also showed off some solid boxing skills not seen since the early days of his career.
Although he has said in the past that he wants to fight Pacquiao in the future, realistically that probably won’t happen. It would take Valero a couple of years at least to get to welterweight and to beat a decent enough opponent to sell the Pacquiao fight. By then Pacquiao might well be retired, and the current gap in skills between the two would still need to be addressed for it to even be a decent fight.
Stephen Gallagher, Greensburg PA: “Valero is the man! He showed last night why he deserves a shot at Manny Pacquiao. He’s better than Pacquaio used to be and he’s getting as good as Pacquiao is now!”
Valero did show a lot of improvement in last night’s fight, but he’s still a long way off being where Pacquiao is right now. Some of the ensuing hype after the fight was undoubtedly from the uninspiring performance from Antonio De Marco.
Billy Frye, Pittsburgh PA: “I’m still not sold on Valero, he got his 27th stoppage but DeMarco gave up on the fight after about the 5th round. Maybe he forgot he was supposed to come on stronger in the later rounds instead of just standing there getting hit”
Miguel Mencia, State College PA: “Valero beat DeMarco, but who’s DeMarco ever beaten? He’s getting a lot of praise for beating someone who was never that good in the first place”
DeMarco was a decent win for Valero, whether or not he has an excellent record himself or not. Valero has been accused of only fighting old men in the past, and regardless of how one sided the fight turned out to be, DeMarco is at least a young and ranked opponent.
I think Valero regardless of just how good he turns out to be does have the makings of a star. That is provided he can gain access to a big fan base in the United States, which for Valero might be problematic. Firstly there is the failed medical after a motorbike crash several years ago. This rules out some states, but at the moment allows for fights in Texas. In the past this might have been a closed case, but there is a lot more room for re-testing these days.
The second obstacle is the fact that he has a DUI charge in Texas, meaning gaining entry into the United States by itself is a problem.This might be insurmountable for a normal person, but with a lot of money at stake and a marketable commodity like Valero, this problem might only be a temporary one.
Scott Holst, Pittsburgh PA: “Valero will never fight in most of the U.S anyway because of his brain problem, and for sure having a tattoo of an enemy of the state like Hugo Chavez doesn’t help anyone’s cause”
Valero himself thinks his problem stems more from the fact that he supports Huge Chavez than his drunk driving, but in either case, being tattooed with a socialist leader can’t be that helpful to anyone entering the United States. I don’t think hes been named an official enemy of the state, but even so relations with Venesuela are frosty to say the least.
