IS GERRY IN SLOT WHERE HE CAN’T WIN?
Tagbilaran City, RP – Former world super flyweight champion Gerry Penalosa (51-5-2, 34 KOs) of the Philippines, who turns 35 in August, has accepted the offer to challenge the reigning and defending 26-year-old WBO super bantamweight champ Daniel Ponce De Leon (30-1-0, 28 KOs) of Mexico.
EXPERTS SAY THIS IS “DUMB” FOR GERRY
After watching Jorge Arce have an unfair size advantage over Jorge Ler on Saturday night, this discrepancy might pale when comparing Penalos and De Leon. If it happens, it would be youth versus experience in what many boxing pundits consider as a major mismatch both in terms of size and strength in favor of the hard-hitting De Leon. Penalosa is however fearless and confident that his vast counterpunching and slick approach is going to beat De Leon’s unorthodox style. This tussle is going to be the chief supporting bout of the Marco Antonio Barrera-Juan Manuel Marquez showdown at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada on March 17th.
DE LEON IS TAILOR-MADE FOR PENALOSA
Styles make fights. This old clich?, apart maybe from his advancing age, seems to be the driving force that compelled Penalosa to take this bout in spite of the salient odds against him. It may be noted that the Pinoy pug’s four losses were against “runners.” Two of those were against Korean In Joo Choo (18-2-0, 7 KOs) who then sported an unblemished slate before bowing down to the other Penalosa tormentor Japan-based World super flyweight champion Masamori Tokuyama of Korea (32-3-1, 8 KOs) who also battled it out twice with the Filipino. All those losses were in “controversial” fashion. Penalosa expressed optimism that his style is going to beat De Leon’s style, (Pedro thinks De Leon eats Gerry up) although the latter is considerably bigger and stronger. He also said that he is not worried about the huge size disparity because he has sparred much bigger guys in the gym.
KING PENALOSA HASN’T BEEN STOPPED!
The fact that Penalosa hasn’t been stopped in all his fifty-eight career bouts should serve as a major motivation for the Mexican knockout artist going into this encounter. Penalosa may be relatively small, but he’s definitely one tough customer inside the squared circle. It certainly shouldn’t be a walk in the park for De Leon.
BECAUSE FREDDIE ROACH SAYS SO!
Penalosa, after learning about Golden Boy Promotions’ offer, sought the opinion of his former managers Rudy Salud and Antonio Aldeguer regarding this issue. They both advised him not to take this fight because Ponce is too big. Gerry expressed his admiration for their honesty and genuine concern for him, but would respectfully go against their will by taking this gamble instead because he is not getting any younger. Celebrated trainer Freddie Roach of Los Angeles’ Wild Card Gym, who now acts as both manager and trainer of Penalosa, on the other hand, is convinced that his ward will beat De Leon.
IT COULD (SHOULD) HAVE BEEN JHONNY!
The Filipino ring tactician was supposed to slug it out with another young Mexican champ in WBO bantamweight Jhonny Gonzales (33-5-0, 28 KOs) in what could have been a blockbuster fight card in the Philippines featuring tough Filipino pugs against Mexican WBO champions. The opposing camps were however unable to strike a deal because Gonzales’ camp was unwilling to fly over to the Philippines and defend his diadem against Penalosa for fear of a hometown decision. This fight could still materialize in the future since Penalosa said that if he wins the 122-lb title, he will still move down to bantamweight where he is most comfortable fighting. That’s if De Leon doesn’t kill him!
