Boxer Edwin Valero denies arrest on domestic violence charges

Associated Press

WBA super featherweight champion Edwin Valero of Venezuela, left, lands a punch to challenger Takehiro Shimada of Japan in Tokyo, Thursday, June 12, 2008. Valero won the match, scoring a technical knockout in the 7th round.

Associated Press

Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2009 | 5 p.m.

CARACAS, Venezuela — WBC lightweight champion Edwin Valero denied reports he was arrested on domestic violence charges.

Valero told reporters in Tuesday the allegations were merely an effort to “provoke” him.

“I’ve never hit my little sister and much less my mother,” Valero said in comments published by Venezuelan television station RCTV on its Web site.

Venezuela daily El Universal reported Valero was arrested last week after a neighbor called emergency services and told authorities the boxer had struck his mother and a sister during a family dispute.

Police in Valero’s hometown—El Vigia—declined to confirm or deny the report, arguing they were not authorized to discuss the issue with the media.

The boxer’s mother, Eloisa Vivas, backed up Valero’s statement on Tuesday.

“There wasn’t any sort of aggression, we weren’t mistreated or anything,” she said.