Edwin Valero pounding way up the charts

By BOB HANNA

Now that he has signed up with Top Rank promoter Bob Arum, we should finally get a look at Edwin Valero, who just may be the most exciting fighter on the planet.

Valero is the fighter from Venezuela who knocked out his first 18 opponents in the first round, but was unable to get a license to fight in the United States because of an irregularity in a 2004 brain scan due to an old motorcycle accident injury. Well, he was granted a boxing license by the Texas athletic commission in time to win his second world title two weeks ago, when he annihilated Antonio Pitalua in two rounds. Valero is now 25-0, all by knockout.

"I believe in Edwin Valero," said Arum after the Pitalua fight. "What you have seen tonight is something really special, something out of the ordinary. ... You've seen the emergence of a star with super powers in both hands, someone who can handle any lightweight in the world." read more