By Ryan Burton
On Saturday night, Orlando Del Valle improved his record to 18-1 with a 4th round knockout of Juan Jose Beltran in Carolina, Puerto Rico. The fight was the chief support bout to the Thomas Dulorme-Hector Velazquez main event.
Beltran missed making weight on Friday and ended up weighing in officially at 135 pounds. Del Valle, who normally fights at 122 pounds, said that he could definitely feel the difference in what amounted to a lightweight bout.
"Even though he wasn't the best opponent I felt how heavy he was and how he took everything. I got him hurt in every round, dropped him in the 3rd and hurt him pretty bad in the 4th and then the ref waved off," said Del Valle.
Del Valle suffered his only career defeat last year against Vic Darchinyan in an HBO televised fight. While the Bayamon native loves fighting in front of his countrymen, he said that he yearns for another high profile fight on the premium networks.
"It was good. It always feel good fighting at home but after you hit the lights of HBO and Showtime, when you fight on local shows, you just go in there with a different mentality. It's like, 'let's get this win because you feel like you belong in a bigger fight'," Del Valle told BoxingScene.com.
The birth of Del Valle's first child is expected in February and he hopes to squeeze in another fight in late January or February.
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