Last Saturday night in Caracas,Venezuela, perennial title contender Hector Velazquez of Tijuana’s Chetos Gym, succumbed to the power of WBC lightweight champion Edwin Valero in his challenge for the green and gold belt. Valero (26-0, 26KO) was in control for the majority of the contest as Velazquez (51-14-2, 35KO) did not answer the bell to begin the seventh round. The undefeated Valero suffered cuts to the bridge of his known but is predicted that they will not cause any problems in plans to defend his title against Tijuana’s Antonio DeMarco on February 6th in a venue to be named in Mexico. DeMarco holds the WBC interim WBC lightweight belt which he captured last October.
On the same night, Cristobal “Lacandon” Cruz of Tijuana, MX, by way of Chiapas, technically defended his IBF featherweight title once again as his bout versus Mexicali’s Ricardo “Piolo” Castillo was stopped in the third round after Cruz (39-11-2, 23KO) suffered a cut caused by an unintentional head butt and was not able to continue. According to championship rules, if the bout does not reach the end of the fourth round and one of the contestants can not continue because of an accidental head clash, the fight is deemed a technical draw. The bout marked the third defense for Cruz. Castillo (38-7-1, 25KO) is the younger brother of two time lightweight champion Jose Luis Castillo.
Also on Saturday, WBC super featherweight champion Humberto Soto, who is trained by Tijuana’s Bobby Quirarte out of the CREA gym and who usually trains in TIjuana, trekked for the first time to the lightweight division where he earned a unanimous decision over the tough Jesus “Matador” Chavez over then ten rounds in Ciudad Obregon, MX. The game Chavez (44-7, 30KO) kept the pressure on Soto (50-7-2, 32KO) for most of the brawl but Soto proved to be to much with better defense and more power as he sent the veteran Chavez to the canvas in the first round. Soto has made it clear in the past that he is ready to travel north to the lightweight division but now must find a new organization besides the WBC since his gym mate Antonio DeMarco currently holds the interim title and will be challenging for the absolute version in early 2010 as it was previously stated.
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