By Matt Stein: World Boxing Council (WBC) lightweight champion Edwin Valero (25-0, 25 KO’s) made a huge mistake when he turned down a fight with unbeaten Colombian lightweight contender Breidis Prescott (21-0, 18 KO’s). Valero, 27, had a chance to fight Prescott next, but instead Valero turned his back on the fight, saying that he wanted to take on a bigger named opponent.

But the move made it seem to many boxing fans that Valero was ducking the hard-hitting Prescott to avoid having to mix it up with him and risk getting beat. Valero has compiled a perfect record of 25 fights with 25 knockouts, but unfortunately the vast majority of the wins and knockouts have come at the expense of unknown C level opponents.

In facing Prescott, Valero would have finally had his first true test as a pro and he could have shut down some of his critics by taking the fight, win or lose. Valero wants a fight against Manny Pacquiao, Juan Manuel Marquez, and Joel Casamayor.

The one problem is Valero hasn’t faced anyone with a pulse yet, and his unbeaten record and reputation is solely based on wins against mostly mediocre opponents. The thought of Valero fighting fighters like Pacquiao and Marquez seems a little off-putting, because Valero hasn’t done anything to deserve a fight against either one of those guys at this point in his career.

That won’t stop him from trying to get a fight with them nor will it likely discourage a promoter like Bob Arum from looking at a match-up like these at some point in the future. However, I think Valero missed his chance when a fight against Prescott was there for him.

That fight would have given Valero some much needed credibility as a fighter would have made a name for him if he could have gotten by Prescott. I have my doubts that Valero could beat Prescott, but at least by trying Valero would have taken on a live dog instead of the unknown fighters that he’s been feasting on in Japan.

I don’t think that Valero is at the stage of his career where he can call the shots and ask for fights against top opponents. A fight against the 37-year-old Casamayor is hardly the kind of opponent that Valero should be looking for if he’s interested in increasing his stature as a fighter.

Casamayor may have been a great fighter at one point, but he’s coming off a 11th round TKO loss to Juan Manuel Marquez in September and Casamayor looked bad against Michael Katsidis despite pulling out the in with a 10th round TKO in March 2008.

For me, a fight against a fighter as old as Casamayor didn’t do much to further Valero’s career, especially when you look at the fact that Valero recently fought and defeated a 39-year-old Antonio Pitalua in his last fight in April 2009. If Valero wants to be known as a fighter that goes after old timers, then by all means he should go ahead and fight Casamayor.

Now I can see why Valero would be hesitant to fight Prescott. The Colombian fighter doesn’t have much of a fan base at this point in his career and would be a very dangerous opponent with little reward in terms of financial gain.

However, hardcore fans would be appreciative of a fight like this, and probably a cable network like HBO, who are no doubt aware of how good Prescott is as a fighter and would be interested in showing a fight like this rather than a fight against an old timer like Casamayor.