20.03.04 – By Fiona Manning – Los Angeles, CA: It’s official! Junior welterweight contender Juan “Pollo” Valenzuela landed himself a hot shot at Puerto Rican superstar Miguel Cotto on the May 8 undercard bout of Pacquiao vs Juan Manuel Marquez at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.Thanks to a splashy, devastatingly short second round KO of Guillermo Valdes at the famed Grand Olympic Auditorium last night, Valenzuela will be right back in the gym preparing for his big payday. Both main event stars, Valenzuela and fast-rising Daniel Ponce de Leon made short work of their foes but the crowd which packed Oscar de la Hoya’s favorite arena to the rafters, went home happy.
There was nothing loco about this pollo Valenzuela, as he went about the business of rapidly dismantling his opponent, dropping him hard at the end of the first with a great left hook.
Valdes came back for more torture in the second, taking good, clean punches and a right-left combo that sent him to the canvas, lips first. Ref Raul Caiz junior called a halt to the slaughter at 2.54 in the second.
Valenzuela improves to 20-6, 9 KOs . Valdes slips to12-2, 3 KOs .
In the semi-main event, undefeated featherweight Daniel Ponce De Leon scored a fifth round KO over two-time title challenger Ivan Alvarez. Alvarez, a one time prospect from Colombia is being used up as an opponent and has come off a string of losses against hard hitting foes including Rocky Juarez, Oscar Larios, Bones Adams and Steve Luevano. Ouch!
Ponce De Leon simply dominated the fight from the outset. He had speed and man, those hands! In round four, he dropped Alvarez and then removed whatever gas Alvarez had left in his tank with hard, unanswered shots at 2.02 of the round.
Ponce de Leon improves to 20-0, 20 KOs (very nice) but needs a live opponent next time. The game but outgunned Alvarez falls to 17-13, 9 KOs.
Undercard action was mighty tasty. In a cracking six round feather bout, Jose Gonzalez took a hard-won split decision over Oscar Villa. Scores were 59-56 Villa and 60-54, 58-56 Gonzalez
Golden Boy Promotions promoted this Telefutura televised. The evening had some moments of sadness for the Telefutura guys mourning the passing of their director, Jorge Ortega.
“It was devastating for us who knew him and got to work with him,” said TV announcer and former junior welterweight contender, Ahmed Santos.
Golden Boy Promotions’ next fight card will take place at the Grand Olympic Auditorium on Thursday March 25th. Main event will be Jose Luis Valbuena vs Israel Vasquez for the vacant IBF Super bantamweight belt.
For questions or comments email Fiona Manning at Bondigirl@aol.com