SAD SHOCKER: Edwin Valero Arrested For Murdering His Wife

WBC lightweight champion Edwin Valero has been arrested in Venezuela, on suspicion of killing his wife.

Federal Police Chief Wilmer Flores, reports the AP, said the 28-year-old Valero (27-0 with 27 KOs) was arrested after police found the body of his wife, Jennifer Carolina Viera, in a hotel in the city of Valencia. The couple do have children, though the specifics of number, age and gender are not yet public.

Flores, the AP said, stated that Valero left the hotel room where his wife was found near dawn on Sunday. He told the hotel security personnel that he had killed Viera.

On March 25, Valero had been accused of assaulting his wife, who suffered a damaged lung and ribs. The boxer denied the assault, and said his wife had in fact fallen down stairs, causing her injuries. He was sent to a facility to undergo treatment for drug and alcohol abuse, his lawyer said. It is not clear when or if hed been released from that facility.

The boxer last fought on February 6, when he scored a stoppage of Antonio DeMarco in Mexico. Valero, a former super featherweight titlist, was on the verge of a career-defining money fight, but it appears, if indications play out, that his boxing career is finished.

His career was on an upswing, after a hard slog. He suffered brain damage in a 2001 motorcycle accident, and had to lobby hard to get licensed to fight professionally in the US after that mishap was made public when he failed a physical in New York in 2004.