VALERO: I WOULD HAVE KNOCKED OUT OSCAR IN THREE
By Dong Secuya
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 21 Dec 2008
Cebu City -- Venezuelan knockout artist Edwin Valero, who is in the country upon the invitation of Filipino superstar Manny Pacquiao to attend Pacquiao's birthday bash last Wednesday in General Santos City, said here last night that if it was him who was fighting Oscar de la Hoya last Dec. 6, he would have finished off De La Hoya within three rounds.
"Oscar is soft as a baby," Valero told PhilBoxing thru his trainer and interpreter Rafael Garcia Jr before the start of formal press conference with the Cebu media at the Parklane Hotel here. "I would have knocked him out in three rounds if I was the one fighting him."
Valero, with a fearsome undefeated record of 24 wins all by knockout 19 of them in the first round, was hired by De La Hoya as a sparring partner at De La Hoya's Big Bear training camp in preparation for the 'Dream Match' fight with Pacquiao. But, according to Valero, he had sparred for only 8 rounds with De La Hoya and then he was dismissed.
Valero, who predicted that Pacquiao will knock out De La Hoya on the eve of the fight, insisted that it was him who gave a black eye on De La Hoya during their sparring session. "That [expletive] is a big liar," Valero blurted out in English when told that De La Hoya announced to all and sundry during the final press conference of the 'Dream Match' at MGM Grand Hotel & Casino that it was Victor Ortiz, a Golden Boy fighter with good potentials, who gave him the shiner on his right eye.
De La Hoya, who held world titles ten times and in six divisions, refused to come out in the 9th round after he was battered by the smaller Pacquiao all evening during their fight on Dec. 6 to mark one of the great upsets in boxing history.
Photo: Edwin Valero (L) and David Diaz at the Parklane Hotel in Cebu City yesterday.
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