Valenzuela Shows He’s Ready for Cotto

Attention, Miguel Cotto: A chicken is on your tail.

Ricardo “Pollo” Valenzuela, whose nickname is Spanish for chicken, clinched his spot as a challenger for the unbeaten Cotto’s World Boxing Council International super-lightweight belt with a devastating second-round knockout of Guillermo Valdes on Friday night at the Grand Olympic Auditorium.

“Everybody talks about what a great fighter [Cotto] is,” said Valenzuela, who improved to 20-6 with nine knockouts. “But until he faces me, then we’ll see.

“I have the opportunity now and I want to take advantage of it.”

Valenzuela and Cotto (19-0, 16 knockouts) will meet May 8 on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez featherweight title fight at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.

Against Valdes (12-2), Valenzuela thrilled the crowd of about 1,000 when he planted a left uppercut on Valdes’ jaw at the first-round bell, sending Valdes sprawling to the canvas.

Valdes’ left eye was swollen to start the second and Valenzuela continued the onslaught throughout, catching him with a left hook to the temple. Valdes had a delayed reaction before falling and referee Raul Caiz Jr. ended the bout at 2:54 of the round.

“It was a good fight,” Valenzuela said with a smile. “But it was tough to box.”

In the co-main event, unorthodox featherweight Daniel Ponce De Leon came up with his 18th knockout in 18 fights with a fifth-round stoppage of Ivan Alvarez.

The left-handed Ponce De Leon dropped Alvarez (19-13) in the fourth round with a right jab to the temple and a left hook to the gut in the fifth floored him again, referee Jerry Cantu’s counting Alvarez out at 2:02 of the round.

“My style is ugly,” Ponce De Leon said, “but it’s effective and no one has an answer to it.”

Also on the card:

Armando Ramirez (2-0) won a decision over Derrick Thomas (0-1) in a four-round middleweight fight; Jose A. Gonzalez (7-2) defeated Oscar Villa (3-19-1) by decision in a six-round junior-lightweight bout; and lightweight Sergio Gomez (1-0) knocked out Damon Murillo (0-1) at 2:01 of the second round.