By Bill Calogero – Photo: Sumio Yamada – December 16, 2007 – Edwin Valero improves to 23-0 (23 KOs) with the destruction of Zaid Zavaleta in the third round of their scheduled twelve-round Super Featherweight Championship. The contest was the Main Event of “Night Of Champions” broadcast live on PPV from the Plaza de Toros in Cancun, Mexico on Saturday night.
Valero, as he always does, came out aggressive and on the attack. Although he claims to train for twelve round bouts, one would never guess it if they watched him fight. To me, he wants to end the fight as quickly as possible. He was throwing punches from every angle, landing on the head and body of Zaid Zavaleta. Zaid, tried to counter Edwin’s attack by throwing and landing several hard shots to the jaw of Valero, but nothing slowed the Champion down. As the ten-second warning was given, Valero landed a solid left that sent Zavaleta down. He was up at eight, was allowed to continue and the bell sounded to end the first round..
During the second round, Valero continued to batter Zavaleta by unleashing a relentless attack, throwing punches in bunches and landing most. As game and as tough as Zaid is, it was not enough to slow down Valero.
The third round began as the second closed, with Valero thoroughly beating up Zavaleta. Just as Zaid began to mount somewhat of an attack of his own, Edwin Valero landed a devastating right hand that basically put Zavaleta out on his feet. As he was frozen standing upright, Valero unleashed a barrage of punches that sent Zaid down and out.
The official time of the Knock out was 1:18 of the third round. Edwin Valero retained his WBC Super Featherweight Title and is looking to fight Manny Pacquiao next.
Zaid Zavaleta drops to 15-3-3 (11 KOs) and looks to regroup.
In the Co-Main Event, Jorge Linares weathered an impressive performance by a very determined and extremely tough Gamaliel Diaz to retain his WBC Featherweight Title.
The first round saw Diaz coming out with reckless abandon, throwing punches from all over, landing some, particularly an overhand right that clearly stunned Linares. Diaz went in for the kill, but failed to put the Champion away. Linares survived the first round without leaving his feet, but losing the round on my scorecard.
Round two through five all went to Linares on my scorecard. He won those rounds by using his superior hand speed and his very accurate punching ability, landing meaningful punches throughout these four rounds. During the fourth round, a left hook, followed by a right uppercut put Diaz down. He was up at eight and chose to bang toe-to-toe with Linares to close the round.
In rounds six and seven, Diaz began to mount a bit of a comeback. He was the busier fighter and was clearly pressing the fight and on my scorecard, won both rounds. His heart and determination was beginning to take over and it seemed like the fight was about to take a turn.
As the bell sounded to start the eighth round, Diaz again came out as the aggressor, pressing the action. Jorge Linares was crisp with his counter-punching and seemed to have gained his wind. Gamaliel went in for the attack, when a crushing right hand by Linares stopped and dropped Diaz for the count.
The knockout kept Linare’s undefeated record in tact as he improves to 25-0 (16 KOs). The loss drops Diaz to 22-7-2 (9 KOs).
On the under card, Naoki Matsuda stopped Rudy Lopez with an eighth round TKO in a WBC Featherweight Eliminator bout.
Lopez was performing to his game plan, when a solid shot opened up a severe cut over Lopez’s eye in the 5th round. It got worse and caused the fight to go in Matsuda’a favor.
Naoki Matusuda improves to 29-7-3 (12 KOs). Rudy Lopez drops to 20-5-1 (14 KOs).
To round out the exciting card, the final PPV show for 2007, Wilfredo Vazquez, Jr. and Jorge Cardenas battled to a Majority Draw in their eight-round Featherweight contest.
The highly favored Vazquez, took control of the fight at the start, but faded and Cardenas clearly became the busier fighter to keep this fight very exciting.
One judge at ringside scored the fight 77-75 in favor of Vazquez, while the other two saw it even at 76-76 causing the fight to be ruled a Majority Draw.
Wilfredo Vazquez Jr. remains undefeated at 9-0-1 (8 KOs) while Jorge Cardenas adds another draw, now at 9-4-4 (6 KOs).
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