Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow - Venezuela by Eric Armit Feb 25th 2008

In the latest part of his fascinating series, Eric Armit casts his eye over Venezuela and chooses his stars of yesterday, today and (perhaps) tomorrow. Venezuelan Stars Yesterday Carlos Hernandez In these modern days where the internet makes information on everything available to everyone it may be difficult to appreciate the unconnected world that existed 40-50 years ago. Back then the only mention of 'Internet' would be the response of an inarticulate footballer to his manager's question of where he was supposed to put the ball and 'Google' was probably the state you got into when a bird walked by with huge breasts and sparrow's legs and you could not decide whether to giggle or ogle. As a result knowledge of boxing around the world was limited and good fighters could suddenly seem to appear from nowhere. One of the greatest shocks of the start of the 1960's was the defeat of the ill-fated* world featherweight champion Davey Moore by some “unknown” from Venezuela. Moore, “ The Springfield Rifle” was acknowledged as a top class fighter, capable of ruling the division for the foreseeable future. He had won the world title in March 1959 with a stoppage of Hogan “Kid” Bassey, had won his last 16 in a row, and in October in non-title action had floored Bobby Neill four times and stopped him inside a round at Wembley. Davey had travelled down to Caracas in February 1960 for a non-title match with Sergio Caprari, an Italian with just one loss in 50 fights, and beaten him without trouble. He was invited to stay on to face a green local kid. The skinny, moustachioed 20-year-old novice named Carlos “Morocho” Hernandez. Carlos had been a pro for less then a year, and to Moore's manager Willie Ketchum it must have seemed like easy money. The fight took place in Caracas on March 17 1960 and shook the boxing world. Moore was floored, stopped in seven rounds and hospitalised with a fractured jaw. Instant fame it might have been, but with only one world champion in those days it took Carlos the best part of another five years to land a title fight and become Venezuela's first world champion. Born in the La Pastora barrio of Caracas, Carlos was an outstanding amateur winning a Diamond Gloves tournament in Mexico, a gold medal in the Central American and Caribbean Games and twice being national featherweight champion. Contrary to what most records say Carlos actually turned pro in Caracas on January 26, 1959 with a third round stoppage of Felix Gil. He set a record, for that time in Venezuela, by winning his first eight fights inside the distance and then in a brief and uninspiring visit to New York took a points win over modest Luke Easter. He was then pitched in tough as he drew with both Angel Robinson Garcia and Doug Vaillant. Garcia would go on to have close to 250 fights, losing here to Maurice Cullen and Ken Buchanan and Vaillant to beat Dave Charnley. In his next two bouts he faced and kayoed Rocky Randell and Baby Vasquez, world rated fighters with almost 200 fights between them. The danger signs were there, but Ketchum failed to read them. Over the next few years Carlos did all the right things but a title shot eluded him. He scored impressive wins over world rated Alfred Urbina, Vicente Rivas for the national lightweight title, Angel Robinson Garcia twice and Dave Charnley victim Lenny Mathews. Even a draw with world number two Kenny Lane did not bring the title shot. At that point in June 1961, his management made the same mistake that Ketchum had made and took what seemed an easy night by bringing under-rated Eddie Perkins down to Caracas. Despite spotty early form, Eddie was on his way to a world title and the Hall of Fame and he took his big chance and out boxed the local banger for a good decision win. Even now there were only two versions of the world title around and without big money behind him the only hope for Carlos was to wade his way through the best but it was not all plain sailing. Wins over Tito Marshall, Vaillant twice, Gene Gresham, Paolo Rossi, Bunny Grant and “Old Bones” Joe Brown** were interspersed with losses to Lane and Matthews. The next three fights saw Carlos on a see-saw as he halted Carlos Teo Cruz in two rounds, was halted in seven by Jose Napoles and then kayoed Lane in two. It was that kayo of Lane that finally landed Carlos a return with Perkins, who was by now the WBA and WBC light-welterweight champion. Carlos had home advantage in their January 1965 fight and it proved decisive as he took a split decision to finally become the first Venezuelan to win a world title. He made two defences in 1965 halting Colombian Mario Rositto*** in five rounds and kayoing Jamaican Percy Hayles, but was halted in eight rounds by Ismael Laguna in a non-title match and eventually dropped his title on a points verdict to Sandro Lopopolo in Rome in April 1966. He fought on looking for another title shot and beat class guys such as Vicente Derado, LC Morgan, Lennox Beckles and Ray Adigun and in May 1969 challenged “The Untouchable” Nicolino Locche for the WBA title. He showed he had not lost his power as he floored Locche, an unheard of occurrence, but lost a clear decision. His career was petering out when he came here to fight Ken Buchanan at Wembley and was halted in eight rounds. Carlos finally retired in 1972 almost twelve years to the day after he shook the boxing world with his win over Moore. Nicknamed “El Destructor”, as Venezuela's first world champion he had a tremendous impact on boxing down there. His slim frame disguised great punching power but his technique was pretty basic. His record contains a whole generation of top class fighters from featherweight to light-welterweight and at his peak he was a match for any of them. Career: 79 fights, 62 wins(46 by stoppage or kayo), 13 losses, 4 draws. Today Edwin Valero There are better boxers down in Venezuela but there is no more aggressive, wilder or explosive puncher. The Beatle-haired, loose-limbed, WBA super-featherweight champion is about as basic as it gets. His approach is simply one of attack being the best form of defence. From the first bell he throws punches, and keeps throwing them until his opponents goes down and stays down. It is not pretty, but it is raw and exciting, and successful-so far. Born in Bolero Alto on December 3, 1981 he started boxing at the age of 12 and was national champion at featherweight three times in a row. He failed to make the 2000 Olympics, losing to future IBF super-bantamweight champion Brazilian Valdemiro Pereira in the Americas trials. However, as with Hernandez, he collected a gold medal in the Central American and Caribbean Games beating Mexican Francisco Bojado in the finals. Before he could launch his pro career he suffered a serious head injury in a motor cycle accident. Despite this he was cleared to box and had his first professional fight in July 2002. The opposition was very ordinary but Edwin wasted no time in blowing them away and ran up eight first round wins in a row. In July 2004 he had his first fight in the USA, in California, and extended his run of first round wins to twelve. His world collapsed in January 2004 when the New York Commission denied him a licence when an MRI revealed the evidence of his previous head trauma, something he had failed to report on the paperwork for his licence application in California, which in itself was sufficient to get him banned. Since the member States of the American Association of Boxing Commissions respect each other's medical suspensions, Edwin could no longer fight in the USA and there were doubts if he could box anywhere. However, medical standards differ from country to country, and in May 2005 Edwin was in the ring again and the run of first round victories continued. Later he moved to Japan and settled there and took his run to a world record eighteen before Mexican Genaro Trazancos lasted into the second round of their bout in Kobe in March 2006. Although the opposition had been somewhere between awful and moderate, the publicity and the influence of Edwin's backers landed him a shot at Panamanian Vicente Mosquera for the WBA super-featherweight title in August 2006. This fight posed and answered a whole list of questions. Could he hurt a class fighter such as Mosquera, could he take a punch, would his stamina hold out more the six minutes, did he have the guts to go with the punch?  Well, he hurt Mosquera and had him down and almost out in the first round, stood up to some bombs from Mosquera as the fight progressed and climbed off the floor in the third round to break down and halt Mosquera in the tenth round of a war. He was for real. So far he has defended his title three times, all inside the distance wins of course, and he wants in on the Manny Pacquiao /Juan Manuel Marquez /Joan Guzman/etc. super fight mix. There is talk of him trying to get a licence in the USA, but that remains doubtful. However a fight with the winner of Marquez-Pacquiao would go down big in Japan where now make his home. With his 23 straight inside the distance wins the 5'7” southpaw, nicknamed “Dinamita” has more raw power pound for pound than any other fighter out there. Record: 23 fights, 23 wins (23 by stoppage or KO) Tomorrow Nehomar Cermeno For this category I hesitated between Patrick Lopez, Alexander Espinoza and Nehomar Cermeno and settled on bantamweight Nehomar. Now 28 he left it late to turn pro but has made steady progress. As an amateur he was a bronze medallist in the Central American and Caribbean Games as far back as 1998 and won a gold medal in the South American championships the same year. He collected a silver medal in the 1999 Pan American Games and competed in the 2000 Olympics but lost out in the second series. In 2002 he repeated his 1998 successes with a gold in the South Americas and a bronze in the Central Americans. Turning pro in November 2004 in Panama, where he now lives, he has won 14 in a row, including appearances in Argentina and Germany and has impressed. Record: 14 fights, 14 wins (9 by stoppage or KO) *Davey Moore died on March 23 1963, from injuries suffered two days earlier when losing his featherweight title to Cuban Sugar Ramos. **The Joe Brown fight had an amusing preface as Joe, by then a spent force, was halted when trying to get a flight out of the country and needed a police escort to make sure he went through with the fight-and was kayoed in three rounds. Joe claimed his early departure was due to a dispute over the purse money. ** *In an amazing incident Rositto's manager spotted a mistake in the Venezuelan regulations calling for only one metre of bandage on the fighter's hands instead of 10. Knowing Hernandez was a fearsome puncher he took a chance and insisted that the one metre rule was enforced and sure enough Carlos suffered an early fracture in his right hand.

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