Berserk: The Shocking Life and Death of Edwin Valero. Don Stradley

they got crazy.” Valero was already stubborn with a temper. When alcohol was introduced, Fischer reckoned, Valero became “a maniac.”

      In de Leon, Valero met his equal. De Leon was known to rip off his shirt in a bar and challenge a rival to fight bare-knuckle. “The story I heard was that de Leon bit off a piece of Valero's ear,” Fischer said. “That's why Valero started growing his hair out.”

Valero's main beef with Anchondo and de Leon was rooted in envy. They had main-event status on local shows, and received monthly stipends. In Valero's eyes, Anchondo and de Leon were inferior. The truth was that Valero wasn't well connected. Anchondo had been a pro for three years, and de Leon had been on the Mexican Olympic team in 2000. Valero, conversely, had been fighting in Venezuelan backwaters. “He was a gamble,” said Fischer. Joe Hernandez was acting as Valero's manager and trainer. Oscar De La Hoya's father Joel was a silent partner. There wasn't much careful planning involved with Valero. “It was more like, ‘Let's take a gamble on this guy.’”

      Sometimes Valero's wrath was directed at Hernandez. “They split every month,” said Fischer. “Little things would set Valero off. For instance, Joe was very old school, and when the guys appeared in public at a boxing event, Joe wanted them to dress up. Valero thought he was being disrespected. He'd say, ‘Fuck it. I'll train myself.’ But Valero liked Joe, and he'd come back.”

      “He wasn't a sweet kid,” said Hernandez.

      Despite the drinking and flare-ups, Valero was generally likable. “He was quiet,” said Fischer. “Respectful. Shy. He kept to himself. When he trained, it was like no one else existed. He was in his own little world. But if he talked to you he'd be really cool and sincere. He took pride in himself. And when he shook your hand, he crushed it.”

      Valero occasionally talked to his new associates about his criminal past. He said he had known thirty people who were already dead and buried. In El Vigia, Valero said, one had to be either a drug dealer or an assassin. He claimed a contract had been taken out on him, but the killer who drew the assignment was a friend and couldn't do it. Why the contract wasn't given to someone else was a detail Valero didn't explain.

      The impression Valero gave was that boxing had saved his life. Without boxing, he said repeatedly, he'd be in prison or dead.

      • • •

Valero's first professional bout in America took place on July 19, 2003, at the Activities Center of Maywood—which has since become Maywood's YMCA—on the undercard of a show headlined by de Leon. Valero was matched with Emmanuel Ford, a thirty-two-year-old with a record of 5-20-2. Ford was on the canvas three times before the bout was stopped in the first.

      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.