By Dave Lahr: I almost lost it when I heard that World Boxing Council lightweight champion Edwin Valero (25-0, 25 KOs) wasn’t planning on fighting Colombian Breidis Prescott (21-0, 18 KOs) on July 25th after all, and that Valero’s manager was saying that Valero, 27, is only interested in fighting “big names” for big money. It seems an insane request because Valero hasn’t fought anyone himself, and seems like the last person that should be thinking that he should be in the position for a big money fight.
I could see the request coming if Valero was a well known fighter who had established himself by beating a number of talented fighters through the years. However, only die hard boxing insiders even know who Valero is in the United States, because he’s had only one television fight that I know of in the U.S.
Valero would like to fight Manny Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez, Joel Casamayor and Urbano Antillon. Marquez is busy, luckily for Valero. I could see Valero wanting Casamayor or Antillon, but not Pacquiao. That’s like a pipe dream for Valero. His number #1 contender is Antillon, so I think that’s a decent opponent for Valero. I doubt Valero will win, but it seems like a good choice.
One of the major criticisms of Valero is that he’s build up his 25-0, 25 KO record by fighting a bunch of 2nd and 3rd rate opponents and has been able to establish a record ( and a name for himself) based on beating lesser fighters.
Even in winning his WBC title, Valero was facing a 40-year-old Antonio Pitalua rather than a younger, arguably more talented fighter like Antillon, Prescott, Anthony Peterson, or Ali Funeka. Having seen Valero fight on several occasions, I seriously doubt that he could beat any of those fighters, especially Prescott and Peterson.
Both of those fights I see as almost sure fire losses for Valero. Prescott is 5’11”, much taller than the 5’6” Valero and with better power. A lot of boxing fans were interested in seeing Valero fight Prescott, because they had seen Prescott in action against Amir Khan last year, a fight in which Prescott destroyed Khan in a 1st round KO.
They also had seen Prescott against Humberto Toledo in February, and saw Prescott dominating until the fight was stopped in the 10th after Toledo bit Prescott in the shoulder. (Prescott was awarded with a 10th round disqualification victory).
If Valero was looking to establish himself as a fighter in the U.S, he couldn’t have picked a better fighter than Prescott. Casamayor, 37, would have been a good choice for Valero five to six years ago, but now that Casamayor is nearing 40-years-old.
Fighting him at this stage would be the equivalent of Valero fighting the 40-year-old Pitalua. It would be a great pick if Valero’s idea was to create a reputation for fighting older, past their prime fighters, but it wouldn’t do much to raise Valero’s status in the boxing community in my view.
Valero already has a strike against him because of all the nobodies on his inflated record, and the last thing he needs is to add back to back 40ish fighters. Instead of cherry-picking, Valero needs to go after some talented fighters like Prescott. At least if Valero can beat Prescott, it would give boxing fans and indication of how much talent that Valero has.
Frankly, I think Valero doesn’t even deserve to be in the same ring with a big named fighter like Pacquiao or Marquez at this point in his career.
I think Valero needs to first upgrade his opposition to top 10 fighters with talent, and then if Valero is able to put together a three or four wins over top fighters, maybe then I can see him asking for a fighting with Marquez. Not Pacquiao, though, because it would take more than three fights over the likes of thin talent in the WBC for me to see Valero deserve fighting someone like Pacquiao.
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