Venezuelan boxer Edwin Valero, who committed suicide on Monday in a jail where he was being held for killing his wife, was a “sensational” fighter who was being groomed to fight Manny Pacquiao, promoter Bob Arum said.
Arum, who co-promoted Valero’s last two bouts, said that Valero (27-0) would have made an outstanding opponent for world welterweight champion Pacquiao, another of his fighters.
“He was a sensational fighter, sensational,” Arum said in an interview from his Las Vegas office. “He was just electric. A complete crowd-pleasing style.”
PHOTO: REUTERS
“I was grooming him as a great future opponent for Manny Pacquiao. That would have been a sensational fight,” he said.
Arum said he did not know Valero very well, but despite hearing rumors of drug and alcohol troubles for the Venezuelan had not seen evidence of that himself during several meetings.
“The times I met with him, he was very polite, very reasonable,” Arum said. “I had heard stories about drug and alcohol abuse ... but I never realized the magnitude of it.”
Valero had problems with alcohol and cocaine addiction and struggled with depression. He had previously been suspected of assaulting his wife and was charged last month with harassing her and threatening personnel at a hospital where she was treated for injuries.
A prosecutor had asked a court to keep Valero in jail, the Attorney General’s Office said. But a judge instead allowed him to remain free under certain conditions including that he appear in court every 90 days, his lawyer Milda Mora said.
Valero’s manager, Jose Castillo, criticized authorities for failing to act more forcefully to prevent the killing.
“I asked the authorities not to let him out. He needed a lot of help. He was very bad in the head,” Castillo told reporters. “But they let him out. They were very permissive with him and because of that, we’re now in the middle of this tragedy.”
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