Several years ago my partner and I started a boxing Public Relations service. The idea of starting a PR firm came when my partner met this humble kid in his early 20’s at a Tijuana boxing gym. At that time Antonio DeMarco was a nobody, he moved to Tijuana from Los Mochis to learn to box, he ate out of garbage cans, out of dumpsters. He had to move around from place to place because he didn’t have a place to sleep and he didn’t know where he was going to eat.
Maybe that is why my partner was so willing to help this kid and not charge for our time and efforts. We started to send out press releases to other media outlets in hopes to shine some light on this young talented kid.
He was picked up by Gary Shaw Promotions and soon was able to claim the WBO NABO Lightweight title and the interim belt after dominating Jose Alfaro in 2009.
In 2010 he headlined a Showtime main event and took on the KO artist, Edwin Valero, but Valero was too much for DeMarco and after 9 round of punishment, DeMarco’s trainer stopped the fight. Edwin Valero retained his WBC lightweight belt.
On October 15, 2011, DeMarco regained the World Boxing Council lightweight title that he had lost to Edwin Valero by stopping in all action war against former two division champion Jorge Linares in the 11th round on the under card of Hopkins vs Dawson.
In September 2012 he defended his title for the second time by demolishing John Molina Jr. in the first round but 2 months later he lost the title against Adrien Broner.
It’s amazing to see what DeMarco has become. Now he leaves Gary Shaw in hopes to find a new promoter who can take him to the next level.
Soon we will see the former WBC lightweight champion Antonio DeMarco (28-3-1, 21KOs) rebound back to the big screen.