Edwin Valero Defends WBC Title Against Antonio DeMarco

Venezuelan-born, WBC lightweight champion, Edwin Valero, will defend his crown against WBC interim titlist, Antonio DeMarco, in a Showtime-televised, 135-pound clash of talented southpaws on Feb. 6 in Monterrey, Mexico.

The 28-year-old Valero rose to 26-0 with his 26th knockout last Saturday when he stopped 34-year-old Hector Velazquez, who failed to come out for the seventh round of their bout before Valero's hometown fans at the Polideportivo José María Vargas, in La Guaira, Venezuela.

"It's a great fight. DeMarco's a good opponent," said Top Rank's Bob Arum, Valero's promoter. "We'll see, again, how quickly Valero can knock him out, or whether he can, in fact, knock him out."


The 23-year-old DeMarco (23-1, 17 KOs), of Tijuana, is a boxer-puncher who is coming off of an Oct. 31, 10th-round knockout of Jose Alfaro.

DeMarco won every round of what was his 12th consecutive victory, improving his unbeaten streak to 15-0-1 with 10 knockouts since losing a six-round, majority decision to Anthony Vasquez in February 2006.

"Valero-DeMarco is a classic matchup between a big puncher and KO artist in Valero, and a classic boxer in DeMarco," said DeMarco's promoter, Gary Shaw.

"Only this time the boxer will KO the puncher in the late rounds," said Shaw. "It might be the fight of the year. But no matter what, it will be exciting, coming from Mexico."

Alfaro was the third straight knockout for DeMarco, who earned the NABO with a February, 2007, ninth-round stoppage of Almazbek Raiymkulov, a fighter who came in with a record of 27-1-1, and 15 KOs.




Valero won his first 18 career bouts by first-round knockout, capped by a first-round stoppage of Whyber Garcia in the WBA super featherweight (130 pounds) title eliminator in February of 2006.

Two fights later, Valero got up from a third-round knockdown to earn the WBA super featherweight crown with a 10th-round knockout of Vicente Mosquera, whom he dropped twice in the first round of their August, 2006 matchup.

Valero defended that title four times before rising to lightweight, where he dropped Antonio Pitalua three times on the way to an April, 2009, second-round knockout that earned him his current championship.

Valero still has to resolve a DUI stemming from May, which caused Venezuela to subsequently deny him a U.S. Visa.

"We hope to get the Visa issue with the United States resolved in January," said Arum, who wants to bring Valero back to America should he defeat DeMarco. "But who knows? Hope and getting it done are two different things."

Arum said that another problem facing Valero, stemming from brain surgery he received as the result of a motorcycle accident in 2001, "is a non-issue," even as a subsequent MRI by the New York State Athletic Commission revealed a blood clot on the surface of his brain.

Although Valero was cleared to fight after successful surgery removed the clot, he was still placed on indefinite medical suspension by the NYAC.

Banned by most athletic associations, which supported the NYAC's decision, Valero knocked out his next 14 opponents over the next six years in Venezuela, Argentina, Panama, Japan, France and Mexico before being sanctioned in Austin, Texas, for his knockout of Pitalua.

"Most states would give him a license, including Nevada, based on his current testing," said Arum, who believes that Velaro could be approved to fight in Las Vegas pending an updated evaluation by the Nevada State Athletic Commission.

"Nevada passed a rule that they couldn't disqualify him based on what happened before, as long as his current test is okay," said Arum. "His MRI would have to be passed, just like any other fighter, but they can't go back and make a decision based on the prior condition."