Last night 2020 Olympian Darrelle Valsaint stopped a guy I know very well Paul Mendez, who actually is the headliner for a poster in my work office for a bot that took place on July 26th of some year in the past decade, that was promoted by Don Chargin Productions and Paco Presents Boxing.

Two things stood out – the end of an era, as Mendez is no longer the young guy, who moved from L.A. Boxing in Walnut Creek, California to train with Max Garcia and his son Sam, in Salinas, California, and two, Valsaint did what most couldn’t do. Valsaint stopped Mendez in two rounds – this is a fry cry from the Ievgen Khytrov fight in which Mendez was stopped in the ninth round, but showed his legendary chin.

Valsaint is big strong, awkward, and confident. At 6-0, 5 KOs, he is making a case for being the best fighter with less than ten fights based on his performances this year, but only the most hardcore of hardcore fight fans are tuning in time and time again to see him.

At 20-years-old, and fighting in a division void of a dominant force at the moment, middleweight that is. It is one of these things, where it doesn’t seem to be a matter of if Valsaint gets to the “big fight”, it is when. Keep your eyes on him, as even at the later stages of Mendez’s career, no one had ever done that to him.

Important to note, VanNewhouse also has another one of my favorite young fighters, a young man who stood out to me in Oxnard, California, at the 2019 Last Chance Olympic Qualifiers, Najee Lopez. The true talk of the tournament was based on his mixture of ring intelligence, and skill, but the big thing that jumped off the page is power for me. A lot of fighters are talented, but they simply have trouble being stronger enough at a young age, to fend off grown men. Lopez looked like a man-child, but rather than a brute, he was a hammerhead shark or even a great white.

Lopez had the power – but waited for opportune times to get the most out of his power. I was watching for him at the Olympic Trials, but something happened in which he couldn’t compete, probably a cut, and none of the bouts, outside of the finals were televised which was a crying shame – as a lot of good fights went unnoticed.

The young manager, VanNewhouse, who I have profiled on this blog before now has two of the most exciting fighters in the sport of boxing and a chance at accomplishing his goal of being a manager to a world champion. Something that seems very feasible with the talent he currently advises.