Crying shame that neither men got to continue their boxing career (for polar opposite reasons) after they started gaining serious traction. Whose career would you have rather witnessed unfold if you could pick one? Valero was on a collision course with Pacquiao (a fight Mikey Garcia had Pacquiao losing by KO) and Pirog was getting ready to step into the ring with Golovkin.
Pirog was the first of the wave of Eastern European fighters to get exposure after KOing Danny Jacobs.. I just wish we would have gotten to see that Pirog vs Golovkin, Sergio, or Paul Williams.. Valero was a wild card and had a mean streak(in and out the ring) but I think as he continued to move up he would have been beaten severely based on his style of fighting..
Valero was possibly the real deal. Mikey vouched for him. Said he was the hardest puncher that he'd ever sparred with. That KO record was super sexy.
He definitely had insane power would to have loved to see him vs Linares but he had his eyes in the 140/147 divisions and I could have seen someone like Maidana brutalizing him.. I don’t think he frammaould have suited well for those divisions
I was a big Valero fan but I was not aware of his struggles outside of the ring until the unfortunate climax. I would go with Valero over Pirog, other than the Jacobs fight what were his other stand out performances?Don't get me wrong, it's a shame his career was cut short. Valero was a phenom, all of those consecutive first round ko's, he would have been a major box office attraction.
Both. Pac KO's Valero though in a firefight, as he especially has significant ring experience with the likes of the Mexican trio. Quite underrated ring IQ and ring generalship. Pac is also proven he can take on welterweights after all. Bigger, heavier men already tried to bully him. Valero won't have the significant weight advantage to push him back then, his brute force method most probably would not work.
Pirog is my favourite fighter that never properly came to be. Insane talent, so fun to watch. I'd have paid loads to see him fight GGG.
If I say Valero, does that mean he doesn't kill his wife? If so, I pick him. Pirog could have been a lot of fun at 160. Obviously the potential fights with Martinez and GGG spring to mind, but I even would have liked to see him against Geale, Macklin, and Sturm.
What? How so? The entire HW division was Eastern European before Pirog, and guys like Jirov and Adamek were popping up more too. Yuri Arbachakov is the one to thank for the rise of Eastern European fighters.
I’m talking more on the grand stage.. Jirov was very early 2000s.. After Pirog came GGG, Kovalev, Korobov, Usyk, Loma, Derevyanchenko, Beterbiev, etc.. As far as I remember he was the first I noticed before a huge wave of them started making noise..
Valero had fought nobody outside of Mosquera who dropped him. Pirog had at least beaten a top level opponent in Jacobs.
