José Luís Varela Bustamente (born September 27, 1978) is a Venezuelan professional boxer who has challenged four times for a world mini flyweight championship; the

WBO The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxing ...

title in 2006, and both the WBA and

IBF The International Boxing Federation (IBF) is one of four major organizations recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) which sanctions professional boxing bouts, alongside the World Boxing Association (WBA), World Boxing Counci ...

(twice) titles in 2008.

Amateur career

Varela represented Venezuela at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad and also known as Sydney 2000 (Dharug: ''Gadigal 2000''), the Millennium Olympic Games or the Games of the New Millennium, was an international multi-sport event held from 1 ...

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

. He was defeated in the round of 32 by Cuba's eventual bronze medalist Maikro Romero.Jose Luis Varela at Sports Reference
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Professional career

Varela won his first professional title, the WBA Fedebol mini flyweight title, on September 24, 2004, with a unanimous decision victory over Miguel Tellez. He has unsuccessfully challenged for a mini flyweight world title four times in his career. He firstly was defeated by Iván Calderón on October 21, 2006, via unanimous decision in a bout for Calderón's

mini flyweight title. He then lost to WBA champion

Yutaka Niida is a retired professional boxer in the minimumweight (105 lb) division and former WBA world minimumweight champion. Professional boxing career Niida belonged to the Yokohama Hikari Boxing Gym, his trainer was Mitsunori Seki and Hidefumi Oika ...

on March 1, 2008, via sixth-round knockout. Valera was then defeated by

champion Raúl García on September 13, 2008, via unanimous decision. García defeated Valera in a rematch exactly three months later, again by unanimous decision, to retain the title again.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Varela, Jose Luis 1978 births Living people Sportspeople from Mérida (state) Light-flyweight boxers Boxers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic boxers for Venezuela Venezuelan male boxers