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Edwin Valero made a splash in his first premium cable performance of his career as showed newly added slick defense and boxing skills, incredible heart and courage and landed enough power shots to force Antonio DeMarco to quit on his stool to retain the WBC Lightweight title in Monterrey, Mexico

The heart and courage aspect took place early as an inadvertent elbow landed on the right side of Valero’s forehead and a deep, nasty gash was formed on Valero. That only seemed to light a fire under Valero but instead of turning into the man who was the all out knockout artist but as a slick boxer who paid very much attention to detail, ring generalship and combination punching. Valero continued to do that after the balance of the and landing some hard straight lefts while getting out of the way of any return fire in a Whitakeresque motion as he was lsick with both head and body movement

Vaero mixed it up to the bosy as well as the head while Demarco was able to land some but very few shots of note and seemed to lose steam in the later rounds.

DeMarco gave himself one more round following the eighth as he looked like a spent fighter and he had little success in the ninth and rather then to come out and face more punishment he decided to fight another day giving Valero the well earned an impressive victory.

Valero, 135 lbs of Miranda, Venezuela kept his perfect knockout streak alive at 27-0 with twenty seven knockouts. DeMarco, 135 lbs of Tijuana, Mexico is now 23-2-1

“This was definitely my best performance,’’ said the 5-foot-7½-inch, 28-year- old Valero after making the second title defense of the 135-pound belt he won in April 2009. “I learned I have to pace myself and can’t just come out in the beginning rounds so aggressively.

“I have to save some of that for the later rounds.”

Valero, the busier fighter throughout, connected with many powerful combinations upstairs and to the body, and was as strong in the last round as he was in the first.

“I wasn’t surprised the fight lasted nine rounds. I was expecting it to last the full 12,’’ he said. “I knew I had to keep doing what I was doing in order to win. They thought I wasn’t a boxer and that I couldn’t deal with his reach. They didn’t know that I was a lateral fighter. I showed them that I had a better defense and better legs.’’

A heretofore unknown despite his amazing knockout record – he won his initial 17 starts by first-round knockout — Valero was ecstatic after his debut on SHOWTIME.

“A star is born,” he smiled. “In me, the people have a great boxing champion and with tonight’s performance they have the proof. The fans now know that they will be happy to see my fights.’’

DeMarco fought patiently, perhaps too patiently. He lacked fire and intensity and seemed content to box and land an occasional single punch. If he was waiting for fatigue to set in with Valero, he still is.

“It wasn’t my night,” conceded the 5-foot-10, 24-year-old DeMarco, who entered the scheduled 12-rounder having won 12 and a row and going unbeaten in his last 16 (15-0-1) dating to May 2006. “He got the best of me. I went out there tonight to fight but my body did not respond.”

While dejected, DeMarco did not dispute his corner’s decision to halt the proceedings. “As a Mexican fighter, I did not want to quit, but my corner saw throughout the fight that Valero was the better fighter,’’ he said.’

Luis Carlos Abregu remained undefeated as he came back from a knockdown and score one of his own on the way to a unanimous decision over Richard Gutierrez in a ten round Welterweight bout.

Gutierrez drew first as he landed a perfect left hook that sent Abregu to the canvas in round two. In round three, Abregu landed a hard right hand that was followed by a couple of “cleanup” shots that sent Gutierrez to the deck. Gutierrez ate a few more hard shots but somehow got out the round. Abregi started bozing and landed some nice combinations and boxed weel for the next several rounds.

In round seven, an accidental headbutt caused a cut over the left eye of Abregu. The doctor looked at the cut and Abregu was deemed fit to continue and cruised down the stretch to win by scores of 98-90, 97-97 and 97-91.

Abregu, 147 lbs of Salta, Argentina is now 29-0. Gutierrez, 147 lbs of Miami, FL is now 24-4-1-1.

“I came in knowing that Gutierrez was tough,” said Abregu, who showed surprisingly good boxing skills, movement and defense. “He’s shown it in all his past fights. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy.

“I hurt both my hands in this fight, but whatever injury it is, it was worth it. This was a very hard fight and I am very proud of my performance. I won like I’d hoped. I wanted to be the best man tonight and I was.”

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