Valero could have been Pacquiao’s next opponent

Top Rank boss Bob Arum, who arranges the mega fights of Filipino boxing icon Manny Pacquiao, was planning to cook up a possible blockbuster encounter with knockout artist Edwin Valero of Venezuela. But Valero, a former lightweight champion, committed suicide in his jail cell in Venezuela late Monday night (Manila time) scuttling a possible bout between the two crowd-pleasing boxers. In an interview with boxingnews24.com, Arum said he wasn’t aware that Valero’s problems would have a tremendous effect on his life. “I had heard stories about drug and alcohol abuse, but I never realized the magnitude of it. The few times I met with him, he seemed perfectly normal," said Arum, who added that he was grooming Valero to become the future opponent of Pacquiao, boxing’s pound-for-pound king. Valero, a widely-regarded knockout artist in the boxing world, does ring a bell to Filipino fans. Not long ago, experts installed Valero as one among those considered to fight Pacquiao, who ruled different divisions from the featherweight to welterweight classes and dismantled every opponent blocking his path. Valero was touted as a fighter, who can match the speed and punching power of Pacquiao. Among those who rooted for Valero to fight and beat Pacquiao was no other than Marco Antonio Barrera, the Mexican boxing legend, who suffered his most terrible beating at the hands of the People’s Champion. “Valero. Edwin Valero. He can beat Pacquiao," said Barrera, shortly after announcing his retirement after being beaten by Pacquiao in their second bout on October 6, 2007 at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Nevada. Valero was then a promising 25-year-old fighter on a comeback trail. While Pacquiao was working his way up, Valero was also making a mark for himself in the featherweight class, winning the World Boxing Association featherweight title and the World Boxing Council lightweight title. The Venezuelan slugger was feared in the 130 to 135-lbs weight limit and boxers had reasons to get intimidated by Valero as this knockout artist posted consecutive stoppages, 17 of those came in the very-first round, eclipsing the century-old record of 16 posted by Young Otto in 1906. Valero’s rise to prominence was cut short by a near fatal motorcycle accident that abruptly stopped his career in 2001. But he recovered and began boxing again. In 2004, while he was beginning to compile a string of victories, Valero encountered a licensing problem in New York after an MRI revealed a fracture on his skull from his previous accident, effectively banning him from fighting in the United States. But Valero found himself fighting elsewhere. He fought in Southern America and Japan, then secured a license to fight in Antonio Pituala of Colombia in Austin, Texas, in April last year. Valero stopped his foe in just two rounds to snare the vacant WBC lightweight title. Yet in another twist of fate, Valero’s career took a tumble when he beat his wife, Jennifer Carolina Viera, who suffered cracked ribs and punctured lung only last month. Valero also entered a substance abuse clinic for alcohol and drug dependency as well as anger management. Just two days ago, the fighter was arrested after police found the body of his 24-year-old wife in their room at the Intercontinental Hotel in Valencia, Venezuela. The boxer reportedly left the hotel room around dawn on Sunday and told security that he had killed Jennifer, whose body was later discovered with three stab wounds. Valero subsequently committed suicide the next day in his jail cell, by hanging himself with the sweatpants he was wearing. -- Rey Joble/OMG, GMANews.TV