Recap: Edwin Valero Highlights Great Fights on Showtime All Weekend!

Man, what a weekend of great fights! If you missed them, I’ve provided a short recap of each fight on Showtime over the weekend.

One note, check out Edwin Valero. He’s an absolute maniac.

Showtime Championship Boxing on Saturday Night

Edwin Valero (26-0 26 KO’s) vs. Antonio DeMarco (23-1-1 17 KO’s). Lightweight

Edwin Valero reminds me of the feral boy in The Road Warrior. He has this psychotic, wild look in his eyes and a mane of hair that belongs on a rabid badger. He’s a southpaw with a great left. Although he’s small, he’s relentless.

He’s also, by my estimation, in the top 10 best pound-for-pound fighters in the world.

DeMarco is a long, skinny drink of water with the patience of a Tibetan monk. He sizes up his competition and doesn’t throw a lot of punches in the early rounds.

Valero dominated this fight from start to finish. The announcers kept comparing him to a young Manny Pacquiao...the comparisons are not unfair. He was in DeMarco’s chest all night.

He did something that Pacquiao does as well as anyone in the world. He throws three or four powerful punches and then jumps back out of range before his opponent can counter.

Valero used this same tactic all night. By the sixth, DeMarco looked like a beaten fighter. He just couldn’t answer.

Valero won when DeMarco refused to come out for the 10th round. It just goes to show how hurt he was to not answer the bell in front of his home crowd in Monterrey, Mexico.

In my humble opinion, Edwin Valero and Yuriokis Gamboa are the two most exciting fighters in the sport, and could be the next superstars of boxing.

Carlos Abregu (28-0 23 KO’s) vs Richard Gutierrez  (24-3-1 14 KO’s) Welterweight

Carlos Abregu is 26-year-old, sixth-ranked WBC, Argentine. A strong, stand-up fighter who likes to lead with two jabs and throws big rights.

Richard Gutierrez is 31 and a Colombian native training in Miami. Nice upper-cut and goes to the body well.

For the first four rounds, this was an extremely exciting fight. In the second, Abregu got hit with a left hook and went down for a counting eight. He weathered the storm and came back to drop Gutierrez with a left hook of his own.

At about the fifth round, Gutierrez started to show all of his 31 years. His head movement ceased to exist, his punches seemed to lack snap, and he just looked tired. 

I had Abregu winning every round from the fifth through the 12th with the exception of the seventh. He was a warrior and a game opponent, but Abregu was just too much.

Abregu is a very good fighter, but I don’t know how he would stack up against the top welterweights. He seems a little stiff.

Shobox – Friday Night

Francisco Contreras (12-0 11 KO’s) vs Juan Castenada (16–2 -1 12 KO’s) Welterweight

Francisco Contreras is a fighter to watch. He’s only fought 30 rounds as a professional because he keeps knocking guys out. He decided to step up the competition and face Juan Castenada out of Baja, Mexico.

Castenada was a solid B class fighter and was looking to provide some competition.

Well, on paper he looked to provide some stiff competition, in reality, he got knocked out two minutes into the first round with a body shot straight to the solar plexus.

I’d like to see a lot more of Contreras. It made me appreciate all the more the difference between a top fighter and a club fighter.

I can’t remember the last time I saw a professional fighter with 16 wins to only 2 losses go down with a body shot in the first round. Either he was completely unprepared for this fight, or Contreras has one heck of a punch.

Freddy Hernandez (27-1-1 18 KO’s) vs Chop Chop Corley (36-12-1 21 KO’s) Welterweight

Chop Chop Corley is a 35 year old former champion who has fought the likes of Floyd Mayweather Jr., Zab Judah, and Miguel Cotto. In other words, he’s a cagey veteran. Corley was signed on with a week’s notice.

Freddy Hernandez is tall for a welterweight and outweighed Corley by a good 10 or 12 pounds. He has a stand-up style and a solid right hand. He comes in straight lines.

Corley held his own for four rounds, but it was obvious he was a stepping stone for Hernandez. In the fifth, Hernandez hit him with a short, straight right, and down he went.

I’m not sold on Hernandez as a top welterweight. He was good, but he lacks head movement and quickness. He outweighed Corley by a good 12 pounds, which didn’t make it a very fair fight.