My arse is right! I vaguely remember Valera was an ex- champ. I looked him up on Boxrec and saw that he lost his title to Bivol in his first defense back in 2016. Of course the dubious title he held was the WBA belt. It’s funny/suspect/obvious how the Venezuelan based WBA routinely crowns latin fighters champions world champions without them legitimately earning the belt. They have a definite bias towards Cuban, and Venezuelan fighters. David Morrell is a prime example. I am a huge fan of Morrell and everybody bit worthy of world champion status, but he did next to nothing to earn the WBA 168 belt. (which he is now vacating and moving up to 175) He was awarded the belt after being 3-0 against nobodies, fighting Lennox Allen for the vacant title. Lennox Allen’s record was like 22-1, but had fought absolutely nobody and was largely inactive. He had no business fighting for a vacant world title. Valera was the same way back in 2015. He was fighting at Super Middle and exclusively against very limited competition in the Domincan Republic, yet the WBA somehow thought he should be next in line to fight for the vacant WBA belt against a Russian fighter, which he won. Now Valera was/is clearly a good fighter. He had a solid amateur background and managed to go the distance in a losing effort against Bivol in his next fought, but he should not have been fighting for World title in the first place. The WBA is the oldest of boxings governing bodies, you would think their would be a lineage of integrity to uphold, but no. They seem to think their is nothing wrong with routinely bypassing deserving contenders in favor of giving these opportunities to their hand picked Latin fighters. Look up their recent history-it’s full of these kinds of examples.