Venezuelan Boxing: Out of the Blue and Into The Limelight

by Dafs117

As Edwin Valero prepares for the biggest challenge of his career next Saturday at the Monterry Arena against Antonio DeMarco, The BTBC looks at the recent rise in Venezuelan fighters on the world scene.

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With the population of 26 million, Venezuela has recently produced many fighters that have made the jump from backstreet fighting to the world scene. With no real boxing background, Venezuela’s recent rise has simply come out of nowhere.

Three-time world flyweight champion, Beutilo Gonzalez (77-12-4, 52 KO), is probably the most notable Venezuelan figure that has entered the sweet science. In 1978, Gonzalez defeated Guty Espadas by majority decision to capture the WBA title before defending against Martin Vargas later in the year. Two thrillers against Shoji Oguma followed, the first a draw and the second a late knockout, the Venezuelan dropped his title to Luis Ibarra by unanimous decision.

But, bar Gonzalez, Venezuela have struggled to recycle talent from their nation. That’s until now.

Edwin Valero (26-0, 26 KO) is the leader of the revitalised revolution. With his record-breaking stats and raw power, the knockout machine has steamrolled through his first twenty-six opponents as he became a two-weight world champion with a second round pummelling of Antonio Pitalua to fill the WBC lightweight vacancy.

Valero has become a sensation for casual fans, as he’s been hyped up as the monster he is. But he’s yet to have a ‘real’ challenge and Antonio DeMarco is hardly a top 5 fighter yet. Valero will get far just based on his power; anything else he adds to his game is an added bonus. With Juan Manuel Marquez moving up to 140 pounds to face Amir Khan in May, the vacuum at the top needs to be filled, possibly by Valero.

The 28 year-old went eighteen bouts scoring first round stoppages before a brave Genaro Trazancos survived for an extra minute and a half. Valero’s next opponent was Vicente Mosquera, who held the WBA version of the super featherweight championship at the time. The first three rounds were evenly fought with both fighters touching down once. Valero outlasted his opponent, taking him out in the tenth. “Dinamita” racked up four simple defences before an argument with WBA president Gilberto Mendoza gave him enough incentive to move up to lightweight.

He was thrown straight into the limelight at 135, where he knocked down Pitalua three-times in round 2 to win the green belt. In December 2009, Valero was roughed up in his first defence against Hector Velasquez, suffering a cut on the bridge of his nose. Velasquez failed to answer the bell in the seventh round, but Valero might have taken a lot out of that fight.

In the same division as Valero, Miguel Acosta (26-3-2, 20 KO) burst onto the world stage with a stunning upset of Urbano Antillon in a back and forth thriller.

In 2002, Acosta won the Venezuelan super featherweight belt in his tenth pro-fight via majority decision over Santos Rebolledo. But a run of three straight defeats followed, two of them by early stoppage.

Acosta went back to square one and developed a decent run fighting against durable punchbags for five years. In 2007, Acosta faced undefeated Anges Adjaho in a super featherweight eliminator, where Acosta was floored twice late on in the fight. But the Venezuelan finished on his feet to score his first upset victory on the second-tier stage with a hotly disputed split decision victory.

Drafted in as a stepping stone for Antillon, Acosta quickly took the previously unbeaten and undriven Mexican into deep waters, fighting a high paced wild bout. The end came in the ninth, when a barrage of punches from Acosta had Antillon on the canvas for the second time in the round. Acosta should get a title-shot at WBA titlist Paulus Moses this year.

Another Colombian that should get a title-shot in 2010 is Nehomar Cermeno (19-0, 11 KO), in the top 5 bantamweights in every respectable rankings. In 2009, Cermeno twice defeated Cristian Mijares by decision in a breakthrough year for the mandatory challenger. He recorded a stoppage victory over Alejandro Valdez in December to force WBA titleholder Anselmo Moreno to give him a shot this year.

Cermeno could face fellow countryman Alexander Munoz (34-3, 27 KO) before his first title campaign. He holds wins over Nobuo Nashiro and Katsushige Kawashima and his three defeats have been in title-shots against Martin Castillo twice and Cristian Mijares controversially.  Another world class fighter out of Venezuela.

Jorge Linares (27-1, 18 KO) is a quality fighter that suffered a fluke defeat to Juan Carlos Salgado in seventy-three seconds. Light welterweight Patrick Lopez (18-2, 11 KO) now fights out of Londonderry, New Hampshire, and has already one win under his belt for this year with a shutout eight-round decision victory over someone named John Brown.

As eastern Asia countries such as Japan, Thailand and Philippines take all the praise and touted as the next ‘Mexico’ or ‘Puerto Rico’, Venezuela quietly climb themselves up the ranks. With the media predicting big years for Japan and the Philippines, there’s been no mention of Venezuela, maybe as they have no previous background in the sport. If Valero wins on Saturday; Cermeno defeats Valdez; and Acosta, Linares and Munoz keep winning, Venezuela could well find themselves firmly placed on the boxing map in 2010.

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2009 Lightweight Report

by Dafs117

Somebody check the temperature, this division is getting hot.

Lightweight is one of the few divisions that have an obvious champion in Juan Manuel Marquez, when he defeated Juan Diaz in The Boxing Tribune’s Fight of the Year by ninth round knockout. Marquez is head and shoulders above the rest in talent, but that doesn’t limit his options at the weight class.

His next opponent is Michael Katsidis, an Australian warrior that drags every fighter into war. Katsidis sort of broke America, stopping Jesus Chavez and outpointing Vicente Escobedo on the Mayweather-Marquez undercard. Has another shot to capture the 135 pound crown, after being stopped by Joel Casamyor, who has since moved up in weight, in the tenth round of their war.

Juan Diaz has returned following his very short departure up in weight, as he had two contests with Paulie Malignaggi at catchweight, going 1-1 with the Magic Man. ‘Baby Bull’ will stage his comeback at lightweight, but it could be a difficult road back to the top of the rankings.

Behind Juan Manuel Marquez is Edwin Valero, a power punching beast that can’t get a license in the States. The Venezuelan is a beast, a monster in the ring, and his wild style will always make for exciting viewing. A fight with Katsidis would be outstanding, the sheer volume of power being thrown would be immense. Some doubt his whiskers, but they are untested at lightweight.

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Boxing's Prospects Fail to Make It to the Promised Land

by Paul Magno

Something's been happening to boxing's young prospects.

Actually, something's not happening to them: They're not winning.

The latest example was in this past Saturday's Latin Fury 10 PPV, which saw highly-regarded Lightweight prospect, Urbano Antillon, taste the canvas, and defeat, for the first time against the unknown Venezuelan stylist, Miguel Acosta.

On a personal note for Antillon, he failed in his attempt to win the vacant Interim WBA Lightweight title and failed to live up to the hype that had him regarded by Larry Merchant of HBO as a "can't miss" future superstar.

However, in the big picture, Antillon's inability to cope with simple lateral movement spoke of a greater problem behind the scenes of the sport. It spoke of a future generation of star athletes who are simply not being taught the skills to go along with their athletic promise.

The list of failed prospects in recent weeks is almost comical:

*Well-regarded amateur stand-out, Juan Carlos Velasquez, is defeated by Mexican journeyman, Jose Beranza, on Friday Night Fights. Velasquez actually seemed to be shocked and surprised that Beranza would fight back.

*Colombian banger, and destroyer of fellow prospect, Amir Khan, Breidis Prescott is outpointed by Miguel Vazquez, basically, because he had no idea how to deal with Vazquez's head movement.

*Golden Boy's Victor Ortiz is battered and psychologically torn down by Marcos Maidana, the first fighter with the nerve to actually keep fighting when confronted with the force of a "future superstar."

*Alfredo Angulo is bested by Kermit Cintron because of his utter inability to deal with lateral movement, even when that lateral movement comes from a non-speedster like Cintron.

*Deandre Latimore is out-slugged by, of all people, a flat-footed and immobile Cory Spinks.

One by one, the prospects are falling from contention and they're not being replaced by veteran stars like in the case of Bernard Hopkins' one-sided schooling of Kelly Pavlik.

Many of these young talents are being beaten by the products of hardcore boxing gyms in Latin America. They're being beaten by fighters who, 10 or 20 years ago, would've been little more than a snack for talented athletes on their way to titles.

So, what's the problem? What's happening to our young lions?

Part of the problem rests in the fact that "old school" boxing trainers are mostly a thing of the past in the United States. For every Freddie Roach, there are a couple dozen trainers who would be better-suited working an aerobics class.

Serious boxing gyms are disappearing and the quality trainers are literally dying off.

There simply aren't enough of the blood-and-guts Teddy Atlas-types who will take the time to teach their kids solid fundamentals and the value of being mentally prepared as a professional.

Instead, they are fed into an amateur system which now values arm-punches and "back-foot" fighting over a professional defense and a workable inside game.

In the modern amateur game, points are valued more than power and a light jab is a bigger asset than solid body punching.

It's no wonder young fighters seem to be lacking a certain degree of mental toughness these days.

The second reason for this apparent failure of the young prospects has to do with our culture.

We are in a culture of instant gratification where anything worth having better be had right now.

It takes a lifetime to become a fundamentally solid professional boxer. It's something that takes blood, sweat and tears. Hour after hour is spent going over one basic move, until it's perfected.

Unfortunately, in a prize-fighting world of flailing, crude UFC brawls and "extreme" instant gratification, many young people simply don't have the patience or dedication to sweat for hours at a time on something as mundane as learning how to walk the ring.

The scary part is that, at some point, those boxers who have taken the time to learn their craft, will retire, leaving behind this crop of talented, but not fundamentally sound pretenders.

Then, what will boxing look like?


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