(CNN) -- Venezuelan world lightweight boxing champion Edwin Valero committed suicide in his prison cell after being arrested for the murder of his wife, according to the World Boxing Council (WBC).
The 28-year-old had confessed to stabbing his wife Jennifer Carolina Viera de Valero in a hotel in the city of Valencia on Sunday before taking his own life, police confirmed.
Valero was found in his cell hanged by his own clothes and though he showed some signs of life he later died, police chief Wilmer Flores Trosel told state television.
"A prisoner nearby heard noises inside the cell and told officials, who immediately went and found the boxer Valero hanging with his own clothes," he said.
The WBC said Valero is the only fighter in 300 years of the sport who can boast a 100 percent knock out rate from his 27 fights.
Valero, nicknamed "The Inca," had recently gone into alcohol rehabilitation and was detained in March for mistreating his wife, according to media reports.
He had a distinctive tattoo on his chest of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, and defeated Mexican Antonio DeMarco in his most recent fight, in February this year.
A statement on the WBC's official Web site read: "Jose Sulaiman, World Boxing Council President, and all the members of the organization, are deeply saddened, moved and in sorrow due to the tragedy that took place regarding the case of WBC Lightweight world champion, Edwin Valero, who committed suicide in his cell after having killed his wife.
"Valero was very close to the World Boxing Council President and many of its members, who witnessed the happy years of the fighter when he won his Lightweight world title on April 4th, 2009, and when he defended such title last February 6th, in Monterrey, where he was joined by his wife and two little children for two weeks, showing a behavior and a humanitarian sense that were very far from what happened.
"The World Boxing Council declares today, April 19th, 2010, a day of world mourning, as well as it informs that the organization will begin analyzing a plan to set up a way in the creation of a fund for the education of his two little children, who were left alone in life after the passing away of both of their parents."
