Читать книгу Berserk. The Shocking Life and Death of Edwin Valero онлайн

28 страница из 29

Five weeks later, Valero fought at the Marriot Hotel in Irvine, California. On a card headlined by female minimumweights, Valero met Roque Cassiani, a thirty-three-year-old Colombian who had been in the ring with some good fighters. Valero knocked him out in the first. After a return to Caracas to score a one-round knockout of Alejandro Heredia, it was back to Irvine. This time Valero faced a 0-4 opponent named Tomas Zambrano. As had become his signature, Valero needed less than a round to win.

Valero was 12-0 with twelve knockouts. None of his opponents had heard the bell for the second round. He'd already fought three times in America, more than most Venezuelan fighters. He'd even signed a contract with Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions, only in its second year of operation but considered a major promotional firm. The plan was to bring Valero to New York for an HBO fight against Francisco Lorenzo, a respectable fighter from the Dominican Republic.