Edwin Valero and Jorge Linares defending their belts on Dec 15th in Mexico

[elgigante]

Valero is fighting a guy named Zaid Zaleta and Linares is fighting Gamaliel Diaz. This will be avaliable on PPV and cost 30 bucks. I think both guys defend via impressive KO's. Thoughts?

[Soulrise]

I don't know much about Zaleta or Diaz. I wish cards like these could find a home on HBO or Showtime. I'd love to watch this card but 30 bucks is too steep when you consider all the other fight options coming in December.

[miscmisc]

I don't see either one of them possibly lose. Easy wins for them, I'd say.

[elgigante]

I don't see either one of them possibly lose. Easy wins for them, I'd say.


indeed. i think the goal here is to expose these two to a wider audience in the US and Mexico for future big bouts.

and soulrise, dont worry bout ordering the card. those fights will pop up around here soon after the event id bet.:)

[miscmisc]

indeed. i think the goal here is to expose these two to a wider audience in the US and Mexico for future big bouts.

Jorge can afford to kind of slack off now because he is so young, but even the boxing fans in Japan are getting a bit impatient about Valero not getting real competitions. I wonder what kind of long-term plans Teiken has for him.

I think this double title event was made more for Valero than for Linares.

[miscmisc]

There was a short interview segment about Jorge and Valero on WOWOW. Linares looked sharp in the sparring session, and Valero was, as always, ridiculously intense and killing his partner in the ring as if it were a title match against Mike Tyson.

Linares said that he won't even watch any video of his opponent and instead will "feel him out" in the first round in the actual match. He will watch DLH's fights before the fight intead like he always does, to get his motivation up.

Valero promised KO, while saying that he will be "careful".

[Soulrise]

Nice. What's WOWOW? Is it a TV show?

[miscmisc]

Nice. What's WOWOW? Is it a TV show?

No, it's a pay channel, and the interview was part of Excite Match boxing program on that channel. That program is effectively the only way for Japanese fans to watch big boxing fights on TV. Many of the fights are very delayed (we just watched Calzaghe vs. Kessler yesterday, for instance), but they show some obscure-ish title matches in lighter weight classes as well, which is nice.

And WOWOW is the one that used to broadcast and even (practically) sponsor the UFC, who would terminate the deal pretty abruptly after the Fertittas buying PRIDE and piss off a lot of people.

[Soulrise]

Gotcha, thanks for the breakdown. I've seen you mention it before so I thought I'd get clarity on what it was.

[Soulrise]

Valero is the subject of Dougie's lastest Southern California notebook:

http://maxboxing.com/Fischer/Fischer120607.asp

[Soulrise]

Did anyone watch the card? Seems like Valero and Linares both won in the dominant fashion expected of them.

[miscmisc]

I did. Valero's opponent was a joke. Valero broke his will in the first round, and spent the rest of the fight bullying him around (3R TKO). It wasn't pretty, but then, Valero's fights are not pretty to begin with.

Linares KO-ed his opponent with a beautiful counter hook in 8R. He still has a lot of room for improvement, but his techniques are sick.

[Soulrise]

I did. Valero's opponent was a joke. Valero broke his will in the first round, and spent the rest of the fight bullying him around (3R TKO). It wasn't pretty, but then, Valero's fights are not pretty to begin with.

Linares KO-ed his opponent with a beautiful counter hook in 8R. He still has a lot of room for improvement, but his techniques are sick.

That's pretty consistent with the feedback I've read elsewhere. A lot of people seem to think that Linares has potential to be a top-10 pound-for-pounder.

[elgigante]

valero is a hell of a puncher, but he will get dominated by a top level guy like manny pacquiao or joan guzman id think. he can be dropped as shown in his WBA title winning bout against Vincente Mosquera. id pay to watch him and manny though as it could have hagler/hearns type action potential IMO