By Jason Kim: Unbeaten World Boxing Council (WBC) lightweight champion Edwin Valero (25-0, 25 KO’s) will be trying to keep his perfect knockout string intact on Saturday night against 34-year-old super featherweight Hector Velazquez (51-13-2, 35 KO’s) at the Polideportivo Jose Maria Vargas, in La Guaira, Caracas, Venezuela. Valero, 28, will be defending his WBC title for the first time and looking to impress. It’s been three years since Valero fought in his home country, as he’s been fighting mostly out of Tokyo, Japan, during the past three years.

Valero looked sensational in his last fight, a 2nd round knockout of Antonio Pitalua in April. Valero fought calmly in the 1st round against Pitalua, but then jumped all over him in the 2nd round, knocking him down twice and stopping him at 0:49 of the round. Valero’s power and hand speed were good in that fight.

On Saturday, Valero should be able to get by Velazquez, who has lost two out of his last three fights, and will be coming up in weight from the super featherweight division to take the fight with Valero. However, Valero will only have a slight height and reach advantage over Velazquez in this fight. The real difference between the two fighters is in the power department. Valero hits much harder than Velazquez and is a better overall fighter than the Mexican.

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Jermain Taylor’s promoter drops him

Promoter Lou Dibella has let go former WBC/WBO middleweight champion Jermain Taylor (28-4-1, 17 KO’s) after seeing Taylor, 31, get knocked out badly in his October 17th Super Six tournament bout against Arthur Abraham. Dibella is worried about Taylor’s health, in particular his tendency to get knocked out in his recent fights. Indeed, Taylor has been stopped in three of his last five fights, losing to Kelly Pavlik, Carl Froch and Abraham by knockouts.

Taylor, however, doesn’t appear to be interested in retiring right now or removing himself from the Super Six tourney. Taylor has a fight coming up on April 17th against Andre Ward, who might be the best fighter in the Super Six tournament. Few people are giving Taylor much if any chance to win the fight. Given his recent knockout losses, there’s a good chance that Taylor won’t finish that fight on his feet if Ward can connect with something big. Ward easily defeated Mikkel Kessler in November, beating him by a 11 round technical decision.

Taylor’s best years of his career in 2004 and 2005, when he defeated Raul Marquez, Alex Bumema, William Joppy, Daniel Edouard and Bernard Hopkins (twice). Since then, Taylor has had mixed success, beating Cory Spinks, Kassim Ouma and Jeff Lacy, while losing to Pavlik twice, Froch and Abraham.

Besides that, Taylor’s knockout wins have stopped completely. Taylor hasn’t won a fight by knockout since 2005. That’s obviously of less concern compared to Taylor’s worrisome knockout losses he’s been suffering as of late. Taylor hasn’t taken a break from fighting top opposition since he first was stopped against Pavlik in September 2007. The easiest fight that Taylor has been in with since that time was with Lacy.