Boxing History
Remembering the Wildness of Edwin Valero
Born in Merida, Venezuela in December 1981, Edwin Valero became a favorite among fight fans thanks to his simply incredible series of knockouts. Valero is still talked about, remembered, and fans still discuss what could have been.
Valero began boxing at the age of 12, a fatherless street kid who got a job at a local gym. Reports vary, but some say Valero compiled an amateur record of 86-6(45). Seemingly born to fight, Valero was involved in street fights, and his sheer rage even then drove him to violence. In July 2002, Valero turned pro and defeated Eduardo Hernandez, stopping him in two minutes of the first round. Valero, a deadly and powerful southpaw, had an incredible 18 first-round KO victories.
It was only Valero’s 19th professional fight that extended beyond the first round; it was only in the second round. Valero could punch, everyone knew that. But could he become a world champion? The answer came in Valero’s 20th fight, when he faced and defeated Vicente Mosquera for the WBA super featherweight title. Valero needed ten rounds, easily his longest fight. But his KO rate remained at 100 percent, and Valero was soon being talked about as a potential future opponent for Manny Pacquiao. Instead, Valero had just seven more fights to go.
Valero was badly injured in a motorcycle accident in 2001, more than a year before his professional debut. Valero suffered a brain hemorrhage and a fractured skull. It took some time, months in fact, before Valero was cleared to turn pro. Valero was unable to fight in America (apart from a few fights) due to an MRI done in January 2004, which showed a compact blood clot in his brain. Years later, when the cruelty Valero was capable of became widely known, the question arose whether Valero had suffered irreversible brain damage as a result of the accident and whether this affected his mood and temperament?
We will never know.
But Valero, after holding onto his 130-pound belt four times, then moving up to win the WBC lightweight title, holding it twice—all by KO—attacked and killed his wife. Valero, it turned out, scared his wife, stabbed her three times, killing her. Valero then hanged himself in his cell. That happened in April 2010, less than eight years after “El Inca” first boxed as a pro.
Most people would say to hell with Valero, let him rot in hell. And who could argue? But Valero, for all his faults, for all his simply shameful and unforgivable flaws as a human being, was for a compact time a force of nature in the boxing ring. Some say that Valero, who never went the distance in a single fight, was unbeatable, his raw, ferocious power ensuring victory no matter who he fought.
We will never know.
Valero is remembered as a ghastly man, a disturbed killer who deserves no sympathy. However, Valero is also remembered as one of the most invigorating fighters of the first decade of the 21st century. And there is a substantial “what if?” next to his name. 27-0(27) and a two-time world champion, the memory of Valero and his exploits still haunts many.
Who was in the top ten boxing pound-for-pounds in the 1920s?
Welcome to Part 4 of the 13th newest boxing poll series, which will survey volunteers to determine the best pound for pound boxers from each decade. This particular poll, which focuses on boxers from the 1920s, involved a total of 20 volunteers. Each volunteer submitted a chronological list of 10 to 25 names to vote on for the best boxers of the 1920s.
The 1920s were an extraordinary and fascinating time in boxing history, with the popularity of boxing growing dramatically as the rules were modernized in a way that up-to-date fans could understand. Among the biggest stars of the era was the great Jack Dempsey, a national hero whose popularity rivaled that of American baseball icon Babe Ruth. However, it was a wealthy era of boxing, with many talented boxers competing during this period, many of whom are considered legends of the sport.
Among the great legends of all the teams that competed during this decade, one of the most notable honors was the man, the myth, the legend – the great Harry Greb, The Pittsburgh Windmill. Greb was an American boxer known for his incredible stamina and, as his nickname suggests, he had a relentless offense that he was always looking to throw, as well as being powerful and rapid with an unmatched will to win. Greb won the World Middleweight Championship in 1923, which he defended until his defeat in 1926. Greb fought 16 other Hall of Famers during his illustrious career and is widely considered one of the greatest boxers of all time.
So who were the top ten pound-for-pound boxers of the 1920s? And where is Harry Greb?
This edition Rummy Corner will try to answer this question based on the results of Part 4 of this Survey, in which 20 volunteers participated. Please watch and enjoy the video. This is Rummy’s Corner (produced and narrated by Geoffrey Ciani).
They say boxing is a strange mix of brutality, beauty and – for those who can do it at the highest level – perfection. And so it was that on this day in 1957, the boxing world witnessed a single punch, a magnificent one-punch knockout, an essentially flawless display of punching without being hit, that showed how, one night, this sport we all love so much can deliver all three: B, P and B, if you want it to.
How was the fight, KO?
It was on this day, in rematch for a lost fight, that the one and only, truly incomparable Sugar Ray Robinson, faced the tougher than tough Gene Fullmer. In a sold-out stadium in Chicago, the one and only boxing Sugar gave us the BEST KO of all KOs.
To this day, the great boxing trainers (perhaps a dying breed – but that’s another article altogether) show a brilliant example of pure poetic violence that was literally unleashed, not in the split second at best, on their students. Indeed, it was “The Perfect Punch.” Try as they might, no boxer has ever managed to replicate the brilliance of Sugar Ray, his superhuman blend of balance, timing, and explosively correct power. All delivered in one punch.
Fullmer went down the previously seemingly bulletproof Fullmer and never got up again before the count of 10. Fullmer was knocked down by a punch that left everyone who saw him (and Gene, by his own admission, never saw the unstoppable projectile coming) in absolute awe.
So what was the punch that did this?
Sugar Ray, who was 36 at the time, was already in his prime (or so it seemed, as it turned out, very wrongly) combing his hair back, uncorking the greatest left hook he had ever thrown – that anyone in this sport had ever thrown and thrown the country. Fullmer, who had been transported to another orbit by a divine shot from hell, instinctively tried to get up, but fell on his face, his right glove searching for the world as if it were pinned to the canvas. That was the end. But it will never be forgotten.
We’ve seen some exceptional knockouts over the years, many of them from our favorite and biggest stars. However, at the risk of making the repetition tiresome, there’s never been a knockout captured on film that was/is as epic as the one born Walker Smith Jr scored on this day 63 years ago.
How many times have you watched and admired this KO? youtube!
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