Marc Farrait, trainer of Dominic Valle, hopes his junior lightweight prospect will grow from being pushed to the wire by Eduardo Ramirez last Friday.
Valle edged Ramirez via unanimous decision on a March 13 ProBox TV Card from Osceola Heritage Park in Kissimmee, Florida. Scores were 98-92, 98-92 and 96-94 for Valle, 13-0 (7 KOs), though many felt the 25-year-old from Lutz was lucky to get the verdict.
Valle, a 25-year-old from Lutz, Florida, won their 10-rounder by two cards of 98-92 with a third official scoring 96-94.
“Did he show guts?” Farrait asked. “A hundred percent he showed guts. But guts only get you so far. You got to be able to do other things in there along with the guts. And I would just take it as it was a rough night for him.
“[It was the] first time he got really cut like that. So things are handled differently.”
The show was topped by Najee Lopez, also trained by Farrait and who authored the leading Fight of the Year candidate. He overcame an early cut and a knockdown to stop Gallegos in the eighth.
“Najee handled it one way. Dominic handled another way. It’s way different,” Farrait added. “Was it a very, very close fight [for Valle]? Yeah, it was a very close fight. Could it have gone either way? Yeah, it could have gone either way. I’ve been on the side where we thought we won the fight completely and they took the fight, like Elijah Flores. I thought Elijah Flores won that fight [the split decision loss to Thanjhae Teasley in January].
“So, you could be on the other end where people think that we didn’t win and we got the win. So I would say that Dominic, knowing him, took this as a learning experience. ‘I’m going to go back to the drawing board’ and he knows he has to be not better, way better than that.”
Farrait contends that it is not a terrible learning experience, particularly since Valle still notched the ‘W’.
“It’s not a bad lesson if you got the win,” he added. “If you didn’t get the win, it’s a tough lesson. It’s tough because you got to come back from the ‘L’ and then you got to fix your mistakes. If it’s just you got the win, you just got to concentrate on where did I make my mistakes? How can I fix it? How can I become better?
“And I know I got away with one, so the next time I’m better… But when you take a loss and you don’t look that good and you look rough, there’s a lot you got to work on. Some people don't come back from those losses.”
Was it a warning shot?
“Yes sir. Absolutely. A hundred per cent. Hopefully he learns from it.”
