Former World Boxing Council superfly champ Gerry Pe?alosa finally snags a foe after Paraguay's Feliciano Ledesma stepped up to the plate and agreed to face him on December 10 topbilling the "Rage in Antipolo" card being put up by Jemah's Mark Roces at the Y?ares Sports Complex in Antipolo City.
"This will be Pe?alosa's bantamweight debut fight following a year of hiatus," said a source referring to the southpaw Pe?alosa's one-year sabbatical following the failure by his American promoter Murad Muhammad to give him an activity fight after several attempts.
Early this year, Pe?alosa flew to the United States, hooked up with award-winning trainer Buddy McGirt, and put himselt in top condition only to find out he could not get a single fight. He flew back to the country after a disheartening experience when, in his last scheduled fight, he was ready to proceed to the weigh-in only to find out his name was not on the list of fighters seeing action.
Pe?alosa's last outing on November 27 last year, was against Thai Bangsaen Sithpraprom, whom he decked in the seventh round in their scheduled 12-rounder for the fringe World Boxing Foundation superfly crown.
This time, the 34-year-old Pe?alosa isn't taking any chances in his 10-round non-title bout against Ledesma, a younger yet more experienced foe for Pe?alosa who is branded as a "killer" based on his fight records.
Nicknamed "El Indio De Oro," the 31-year-old Ledesma holds the Paraguayan bantamweight crown and was once the WBO Latino bantamweight king.
Sporting a 66-6-2, win-loss-draw slate with 57 knockouts, Ledesma is a menacing presence inside the ring. In his last outing, he decisioned Arnaldo Orrabalis in defending his national title.
Pe?alosa (48-5-2, 33 KO's) took the WBC 115-lb title in 1997, defended it thrice, before losing it to Korean In joo Cho in 1998. He had three more attempts at the title, each time losing to Cho in the rematch and Masamori Tokuyama, who beat him twice on close decisions.
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