By Eric Thomas: New WBC lightweight champion Edwin Valero (25-0, 25 KOs) will be making a fast return to the boxing ring on July 25th in Latin Fury’s PPV bout. As of now, there’s still no opponent named for his fight but more details will follow. Valero, 27, knocked out Antonio Pitalua (46-4, 40 KOs) in the 2nd round on Saturday night in Austin, Texas.
In the 2nd round, Valero hurt Pitalua with a right hand which sent him down. Pitalua got up but was hit with a cascade of punches that sent him down for the final time.
According to Valero’s promoter Bob Arum, he’s having problems finding opponents for him because of their fear of being knocked out. That’s probably the farthest thing from the truth because I can imagine that a lot of fighters would want to get in the ring with Valero, if only to try and capitilise on beating a still green fighter and picking up his WBC title.
Valero is the hot new fighter in boxing, mostly because of his perfect record of knockout victories in 25 fights. However, he’s still largely a mystery to many boxing fans in the U.S. and in Canada because so few of his bouts have been televised.
This should change in the future, but Valero has to do his part by facing better competition than the type that he’s build most of his knockout record on. His promoter, Arum, has it within him to get a very good opponent for Valero in his next fight in July, and let’s hope he does.
Juan Manuel Marquez or Juan Diaz would be a couple of big names for Arum to go after for Valero’s next bout, but they won’t come cheap. If Arum is serious about wanting to find a good opponent for Valero, he’s going to have to make it worthwhile.