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Philippines, 25 Apr 2024 |
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PE?ALOSA HAS NOTHING TO LOSE By Maloney L. Samaco PhilBoxing.com Tue, 28 Apr 2009  Fearless Gerry Pe?alosa impressed his countrymen as well as some of the Puerto Rican crowd when he survived against Juan Manuel Lopez?s onslaught during the World Boxing Organization (WBO) superbantamweight championship in Bayamon , Puerto Rico . Lopez was considered by almost every boxing expert as the sure winner in the WBO title fight, with advantages in age, size, KO percentage, and hometown. The only advantage Pe?alosa had was his experience in 62 previous fights. Many of his fights went the distance hoping Lopez would lose steam in the later rounds if Gerry would survive the earlier rounds. But Lopez was more determined to fight even up to 12 rounds as he consistently battered the Filipino veteran endlessly, prompting coach Freddie Roach to stop the fight, preventing further damage to his boxer. Gerry never lost his present title, the WBO bantamweight belt, because he moved up to the higher superbantamweight category and faced heavy favorite and homeland darling JuanMa Lopez. It was a champion versus champion encounter and the Lopez win was not a surprise in the boxing world. The fearless Filipino boxer just relinquished his present title gambling on the younger Puerto Rican KO artist. Upon the advise of coach Roach, Pe?alosa did not answer the bell sounding the start of the tenth round, so the loss was recorded as a ninth round technical knockout. Lopez was simply too dominating and Gerry?s only consolation was that he had a heart of a champion to scuffle with the more dangerous opponent amidst hostile crowd. Lopez rained several punches and 444 of them landed on Pe?alosa as compared to the 99 punches hit by Gerry on JuanMa. His gallant stand though impressed the hostile crowd that Gerry received cheers from the multitude who booed him during the introduction. Gerry has nothing to be ashamed of the loss. He had no title to lose because it was Lopez?s belt that was up for grabs. In that fight, it was Lopez who had the biggest reputation at stake. Lopez had a 92% KO win and only two of his opponents went into the distance, Gilberto Bolanos in 8 rounds and Sergio Mendez in 6 rounds. Only Hugo Dianzo lasted for 10 rounds in a 12-round WBO Latino superbantamweight championship. It was the first time though in his career that Pe?alosa suffered a KO loss. His previous defeats were by unanimous decision to Daniel Ponce de Leon, by Masamori Tokuyama twice by split and unanimous decision, In-Joo Cho twice by split decision, and Samuel Duran by split decision. Gerry started boxing in 1989 and at a ripe age of 36, has been fighting for nearly 20 years. He won the World Boxing Council (WBC) superflyweight title from Hiroshi Kawashima. He went into retirement in 2002 after losing twice to Tokuyama, only to come back in 2004 winning the World Boxing Federation (WBF) superflyweight title from Bangsaen Sithpraprom. He defeated Jhonny Gonzalez for the WBO bantamweight title by seventh round KO in the World Cup in Sacramento , California in 2007 where the Philippine boxers were beating the Mexicans, 5-1. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Maloney L. Samaco.  |
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