Boxing – Valero vs. Soto on November 14th?/ Witter Out to Reclaim His WBC Title Against Alexander
July 24th, 2009
By Eric Thomas: There’s a possibility of bout between World Boxing Council lightweight champion Edwin Valero (25-0, 25 KO’s) and WBC super featherweight champion Humberto Soto (48-7-2, 31 KO’s) to take place on the undercard of the Miguel Cotto vs. Manny Pacquiao on November 14th, according to Dan Rafael. Soto, 29, is looking to move up a weight class in search of bigger fights and might be interested in facing the unbeaten Valero.
Soto has defended his WBC super featherweight twice since winning it in a 12 round decision over Francisco Lorenzo in December 2008, beating Antonio Davis and Benoit Gaudet by knockout in 2009.
If Soto were to stay at super featherweight, there would be few opportunity for big fights aside from potential fights against Yuriorkis Gamboa and Roman Martinez. Neither of those fights would bring Soto the kind of money that he could get if he could somehow lure lightweight Juan Manuel Marquez or possibly light welterweight Manny Pacquiao into a fight.
Valero, 27, has built up an undefeated knockout record consisting mainly of obscure B and C level opponents. Of the opponents that Valero has faced since turning pro in 2002, only two of them – Vincente Mosquera and Antonio Pitalia – are worth mentioning.
Right now, Valero is still untested and would be taking a big step up by facing Soto. It’s doubtful that Valero or his management team would be interested in throwing him in with a tough veteran like Soto, because Valero has a good thing going in the WBC. Valero’s number #1 contender is Antonio DeMarco, a rail thin lightweight that Valero matches up well against. Valero might be better off defending his title against DeMarco or one of the lower ranked fighters in the top 15 like Michael Katsidis rather than take on the dangerous Soto at this time.
Witter Looking to Get His WBC Title back
Former WBC light welterweight champion Junior Witter (37-2-2, 22 KO’s) will be looking to reclaim his title on August 1st against undefeated American Devon Alexander (18-0, 11 KO’s) at the Agua Caliente Casino, in Rancho Mirage, California. Witter, 35, lost his title by a controversial 12 round split decision a year ago against Timothy Bradley. Witter was hoping to fight Bradley for the title, but the American vacated the title instead.
Bradley is currently the World Boxing Organization light welterweight champion a this time. Alexander, an excellent inside fighter, will be looking to take the fight to Witter and turn the bout into an inside war. However, Witter typically stays on the outside and likes to move a lot, so this will be a battle of contrasting styles. Alexander isn’t a pressure fighter and he’ll need Witter to be willing to get in close with him in order to make this an inside fight. If Witter keeps the fight on the outside, Alexander will have problems.
Since losing to Bradley, Witter has fought only once, beating Victor Hugo Castro on November 11th, 2008.
Alexander, 22, has faced mostly soft opposition since turning pro in 2004, beating DeMarcus Corley and a number of C level fighters. Despite the marginal talent of Alexander’s opposition, he’s been moved steadily up the ranks in the light welterweight division. He seems to have been pushed up based on his potential and partly because of his prior amateur experience ( Alexander is a 2004 U.S. amateur light welterweight champion) rather than due to any notable wins in his pro career.
Tags: 15 Responses to “Boxing – Valero vs. Soto on November 14th?/ Witter Out to Reclaim His WBC Title Against Alexander”
Leave a Reply
please use above banner to link back to us!
Pacman has ducked Humberto Soto for more than 2 years. Barrera and Marquez also turned down fights against Soto. and just recently, Jorge Linares turned down a challenge by Soto. Humberto Soto is the most dangerous puncher in the 130-135 lbs divisions.
REALLY?! THEY WOULD NOT MATCH VALERO AGAINST SOTO?!! THEY FIND THIS DANGEROUS AT THIS POINT OF HIS CAREER!! WHAT ABOUT CALLING MANNY PACQUIAO FOR THE PAST SEVERAL YEARS? MONEY MONEY MONEY
Valero’s record even if it only involve B, C boxers cannot be put in granted. Pacquiao’s record before barrera is not that impressive at all but look where he is right now. Let us give him a chance to prove it, if he can’t then he deserve those bad comment.
opponents that won’t be a threat to valero’s record should suit him well. just continue his undefeated record, retire undefeated, and claim to be the best boxer of all time. Sounds familiar huh? Face better opponents and then you’ll be recognized.
Valero seems like he could be a force to be reconed with but the lack of opposition is keeping me alil skeptical.
Its going to be nice to see what he(Valero)realy has when he starts facing some real good opponents.
Soto will be Valero’s first test in the squared circle.
Boxing is in need of future greats,with alot of these fighters that we have grown to love over the past years teetering towards retirement(Mosley)-(Hopkins)-(Hatton)-(Jones jr)-(Barrera)and many already retired(DeLaHoya)-(Calzaghe)even Manny Pac is looking for a couple more fights then retire and go into politics.
All these fighters i have mentioned are from my generation and will be missed when they are gone.
Lets hope alote of these young guy’s can fill there shoes.
Ukansodof: if you are unable to realize that this is a World wide Web, and english is spoken by less than 10% of the world population, then, you are the dumbest of the morons roaming around the WWW.
i agree with jocjoc, please include taxi drivers , pedicab drivers, bus drivers and all drivers just to retain his unblemish record, hehehehe… im sure he is still undefeated…
Simple as he is nothing…
valero should fight a tuktuk driver to retain his undefeated record
I love to see edwin valero fights soto. if he passes through soto, there’s reason to believe -
his unblemished record(25-0 25 ko’s)is something
to ponder upon. He should prove himself by demolishing soto before dreaming to fight the highly regarded crowd drawer manny pacquiao. but am sure he will be knocked out by pacquiao in the first round if ever.
do not under rate valero… soto who fights straight forward is too prawn to valeros combo.. plus, it is soto who is moving up…. i believe valero is faster and stronger,,
totally agree with u nepster..
therefore they admitted that Valero is just nothing but a second grade boxer. Why they want manny when they cannot fight soto… Very confusing…
What do you mean don’t put Valero in with a dangerous opponent? What is he going to fight obscure opponents the rest of his career? How many more fights does Valero need if he’s going to land the big money fights that he’s looking for…
Also, Manny or JMM would never fight Soto at this point in their careers…
yeah…put Valero & Khan into two separate fights….all the best fighters of ARUM…in the undercard…considering the main event is also the 2 best fighters in boxing right now also under the stable of ARUM….this is the showcase of superiority of TOP RANK versus GOLDEN BOY….im sure the Golden’s shall be knock out immediately….from the line up alone…hehehehe
Undercard is shaping up to be pretty good. Khan’s been mentioned by Arum…I think Arum wants to make sure this blows Mayweather-Marquez out the water in terms of PPV sales as he knows whoever wins will have that much more leverage over Mayweather in negotiations.