By Sean McDaniel: Boxing great Barry McGuigan says he thinks that WBC lightweight champion Edwin Valero should get out of boxing before he gets hurt. In an article at the Mirror, McGuigan thinks that Valero is putting himself at risk by fighting after sustaining a fractured skull as well as a blood clot on the brain following a motorcycle accident in 2001. Valero wasn’t wearing a helmet at the time of the accident. Although Valero subsequently had an operation to remove the blood clot and was given the okay to fight in his native Venezuela, McGuigan thinks that he’s putting his life at risk by continuing to fight.
McGuigan says “He is [Valero] a phenomenal fighter, one I tipped for greatness during his battle for the right to fight in the United States. But the bottom line is I don’t believe boxing can take the risk knowing what we know now. The ramifications of allowing a boxer who has had a subdural hematoma into the ring could be disastrous. I accept that Valero, and Marco Antonio Barrera, have fought on without obvious consequences following operations to drain blood from the brain. But that is not to say there won’t be any. The risk is too great, particularly in championship bouts.”
Valero, 28, recently defeated Antonio DeMarco in a 9th round stoppage on February 6th. Valero didn’t have to worry about getting hit too much in the fight, as DeMarco looked preoccupied for the most part with all the heavy shots that Valero was tagging him with. Valero, whose defense is lacking at times, held his head up as he usually does when he fights and he took a lot of jabs to the head during the fight. Valero hasn’t faced a lot toough opposition during his career, which has saved him from taking punishment. However, as he moves up against better opponents in the future such as Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, Valero’s lack of defense could be exposed by these fighters.
McGuigan, talking about Valero’s defensive flaws, says “It is a style that leaves him vulnerable in elite class. From a technical point of view, Valero fights recklessly…Valero throws shots like he is looking over a fence with his head stuck up in the air. That is ok when the opponent is so scared by his reputation that he is already running away…But against a Pacquiao or a Mayweather, Valero would get the opposite response. Both exploit any technical vulnerabilities. A bout against either, or a Juan Manuel Marquez for that matter, would be dangerous for Valero.”
What McGuigan says is true if Valero’s head isn’t fully recovered from his accident. There’s no way that you can tell for sure. However, it’s up to him, and he’s not about to quit because of what might happen to him in the ring, because Valero stands to make too so much money by continuing to fight on. McGuigan could be right. Maybe Valero should retire from boxing before he gets hurt, but he’s probably not going to. And it probably matter much if Valero never receives the ok to fight in Nevada or New York, he’s going to be sought after more and more by the boxing public until he ends up getting beaten.
Comments are closed.