EDWIN VALERO – THE MAN, THE MYTH, THE NEARLY LEGEND

Venezuelan’s are bred tough but haven’t quite produced the amount of world champions they should have. The first to break the drought was Light Welterweight Carlos ‘Morocho’ Hernandez. In January 1965, he defeated American Eddie Perkins in his native Caracas to become Venezuela’s first ever world champion. The years that followed saw Israel Contreras win the WBA Bantamweight title in 1990 and most recently we’ve seen Jorge Linares win world titles in the Featherweight, Super-Featherweight & Lightweight divisions.

Except for the boxing purists, not many fight fans would know of Edwin Valero. His nickname ‘El Dinamita’ which translates as ‘The Dynamite’ captures his lifestyle and southpaw fighting style perfectly. He was born in 1981 and grew up in Bolero Alto, Merida to a life of poverty and hardship. Before entering his teen years, his father had left, and he dropped out of school to sell fruit in and around his neighbourhood to help support his family. The trend of falling from job to job became a standard occurrence simply just to survive. This led involvement in gang violence, robberies & heavy drug abuse. He needed a desperate change and an opportunity presented itself when the owner of the bicycle shop he worked in, sent Edwin to a boxing gym after taking a liking to his work ethic.

Oscar Ortega became Valero’s first trainer and welcomed the determined street kid with open arms. After becoming homeless, the opportunity to have a bed within the walls of the gym was music to his ears. The path to re-pay Ortega’s kindness began and excelled beyond what anyone expected. Valero complied an amateur record of 86-6 (45 KO’s) winning 3 national titles and the Central American & Caribbean titles in 2000. Typical of his surroundings and wild nature ‘El Dinamita’ was in a severe motorbike accident which left him with a fractured skull.

After 18 months of waiting for the doctor’s approval he wasted no time. On 9th July 2002 he knocked out Eduardo Hernandez in the 1st round of his professional debut in the capital city, Caracas. Valero continued the trend of a first round KO in his next 18 fights, winning the WBA Fedelatin Super Featherweight belt in his 19th bout. After another KO win over Genaro Trazancos in Japan, he travelled to Panama in August 2006 to fight Vicente Mosquera for the WBA Super-Featherweight belt. Mosquera proved the toughest test to date, although having the Panamanian down twice in the first round, Mosquera rallied back stopping Valero in his tracks for the next 5 rounds, stunning him several times. With the crowd on their feet, Valero turned the screw landing heavy damaging shots forcing Mosquera’s corner to throw in the towel in the 10th. The Venezuelan had officially arrived on the world stage.

Valero continued his dominance with four defences of his title against Michael Lozada, Nobuhito Honmo, Zaid Zavaleta and Takehiro Shimada – winning all of them by TKO. The inevitable unification fight came in 2009 against Colombia’s Antonio Pitalua for the vacant WBC title, and true to form, he earned a 2nd round TKO win. Now a unified world champion with none of his fights ever going the distance, the boxing world had a new superstar.

After a meteoric 7-year rise to the top, Valero took a well-earned 9 months off before fighting twice in 3 months. He fought and RTD both Hector Velázquez & Antonio DeMarco bolstering his already perfect record to 27-0 (27 KO’s). With the world at his feet, his fiery & reckless personality began his downfall and the fall was fast.

On March 25th 2010, he was accused of assaulting his wife Jennifer Viera De Valero after she was rushed into hospital with bruises and a damaged lung. Valero denied the allegations saying his wife fell down a staircase, she told the police the same but there was still some uncertainty due to the severe nature of her injuries. Valero acted so viciously in the hospital towards the doctors, nurses and police that he was forced into a psychiatric rehabilitation for 6 months. Following his time in care, it was believed that his troubled childhood was the main factor towards his violent tendencies. This also put stumbling blocks on his blossoming career which added to his frustrations as he was being compared to by many as the next Oscar De La Hoya. Sadly, his demons began to take over and all the positive things he had done inside the ring became irrelevant.

The beginning of the end came in April of the same year when he was given time with his wife whilst still in rehabilitation. The couple stayed at a hotel In Valencia, Venezuela when staff heard sounds of screams and despair. Jennifer was stabbed 3 times in the hotel room. The police arrested Valero who had already admitted to the security staff in the hotel that he had murdered his wife. He was taken to jail where he was waiting to be charged with murder when police found him hanging from a steel beam with his pants wrapped around his neck at 1:30 am the following day. Although it was officially ruled as suicide, there has been a lot of scepticism about the ruling, but it has never been confirmed otherwise.

His narcissistic and ruthless state of mind is what got him to the highest level of the boxing elite but also what threw him back down to the very bottom of the depths. Unfortunately, it’s also prevented him from potentially becoming one of the greatest of all time.
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