Manny Pacquiao Vs. Edwin Valero. The fight that never was, but almost was. The fight Golden Boy tried to make, wanted to make. Oscar De La Hoya (apologies for another article on Oscar, but there’s so much interesting stuff regarding De La Hoya right now), the only man to have boxed both Pacquiao and Valero (Oscar sparring Valero and fighting Manny in what was his final fight), spoke to Fight Hype about the super-fight that never happened.
“Ooh, that was the fight we were trying to make,” De La Hoya said when asked about a Valero-Pacquiao fight. “That would have been all-out war. He could’ve put in on Manny. I mean, they had the same style but ‘El Inca’ hit harder. Oh yeah, he hit a lot harder, there was no comparison. Manny, when he was hitting me, I was hoping he would knock me out. When I was sparring ‘Inca,’ I was hoping he wouldn’t land one punch because he could knock me out! It was crazy, he was a hard puncher.”
De La Hoya, who said Valero gave him a black eye “every day,” and stated that the doomed Venezuelan hit like his “glove was a rock,” was as shocked as everyone else when Valero imploded, killing his wife and then taking his own life by hanging. Today, as much as plenty of people say to hell with Valero for what he did, there are many fight fans who continue to wonder about Valero. And that talked of showdown with Pac Man in particular. Who would have won and how? Well, I think we all know the how part – by KO. But it’s down to opinion when it comes to which of the two warriors would have landed the fight-ender.
Valero, dead at 28, this when sporting a 27-0(27) record, with him having won two world titles, was coming off an impressive win over Antonio DeMarco when talk of a Pacquiao fight really got going. Sadly, shockingly, disgustingly, we all know what happened.
But as far as raw punching power goes, Valero has to rank as one of the most vicious punchers ever. His record attests to that, as do Oscar De La Hoya’s painful memories of his many hard spars with the man.