Typical of his surroundings and wild nature ‘El Dinamita’ was in a severe motorbike accident which left him with a fractured skull.Īfter 18 months of waiting for the doctor’s approval he wasted no time. Valero complied an amateur record of 86-6 (45 KO’s) winning 3 national titles and the Central American & Caribbean titles in 2000. The path to re-pay Ortega’s kindness began and excelled beyond what anyone expected. After becoming homeless, the opportunity to have a bed within the walls of the gym was music to his ears. Oscar Ortega became Valero’s first trainer and welcomed the determined street kid with open arms. He needed a desperate change and an opportunity presented itself when the owner of the bicycle shop he worked in, sent Edwin to a boxing gym after taking a liking to his work ethic. This led involvement in gang violence, robberies & heavy drug abuse. The trend of falling from job to job became a standard occurrence simply just to survive. Before entering his teen years, his father had left, and he dropped out of school to sell fruit in and around his neighbourhood to help support his family. He was born in 1981 and grew up in Bolero Alto, Merida to a life of poverty and hardship. His nickname ‘El Dinamita’ which translates as ‘The Dynamite’ captures his lifestyle and southpaw fighting style perfectly. The years that followed saw Israel Contreras win the WBA Bantamweight title in 1990 and most recently we’ve seen Jorge Linares win world titles in the Featherweight, Super-Featherweight & Lightweight divisions.Įxcept for the boxing purists, not many fight fans would know of Edwin Valero. In January 1965, he defeated American Eddie Perkins in his native Caracas to become Venezuela’s first ever world champion. The first to break the drought was Light Welterweight Carlos ‘Morocho’ Hernandez. In a big upset, Rolando Reyes, 31-4-2 (20), stopped ex-IBF Lightweight titlist Julio Diaz, 36-5 (26), in five frames while another former world champion, Carlos Hernandez, 43-8-1 (24), was outboxed by Vincente Escobedo, 20-1 (12), over ten rounds, losing a points verdict.Venezuelan’s are bred tough but haven’t quite produced the amount of world champions they should have. In other action at Austin, former two-weight world champion Jesus Chavez, 44-5 (3), did not come out for the seventh round against Australia’s Michael Katsidis, 25-2 (21), at lightweight. Pitalua was unable to throw anything back, causing referee Lawrence Cole to step in and stop the one-sided affair at 0:49 of the second.Įdwin Valero captured the vacant WBC Lightweight title while improving his record to 25-0 (25) in the process.Īntonio Pitalua loses for the first time in nearly eight years, going to 46-4 (40). The big hearted former title challenger beat the count again but was trapped in a corner by Valero, who again unloaded everything he had. Valero moved in immediately and leveled a sustained two-handed barrage at Pitalua, who fell to the floor. The 39 year old Colombian beat the count but was on very shaky legs. Within moments after the second round started, Pitalua went down hard after getting nailed by a lightning fast Valero right hook. Valero and Pitalua traded big shots as the first came to a close, the only exchange thus far into the bout. In the first round, Valero established his control over the bout’s pace, using a busy offense to force Pitalua onto the defensive and using good footwork to avoid trouble when Pitalua did thow anything. The Venezuelan southpaw had made four defenses of the WBA Super Feather crown and was going up in weight against tough customer Pitalua but any questions as to whether Valero’s power would follow were soon dispelled as Pitalua was finished off in the second frame. Edwin Valero continued the most impressive KO streak in boxing last night at the Frank Erwin Centre in Austin, Texas, moving to to lightweight and stopping heavy-handed Colombian danger man Antonio Pitalua to win the vacant WBC title.
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