FORMER World Boxing Council super-flyweight champion Gerry Pe?alosa knows that his time is running out.
And before he will finally hang up his gloves, he is going to make his final appearance on the big stage, that is why despite the odds he is facing, he accepted the offer of Golden Boy Promotions to fight Mexican Daniel Ponce De Leon for the latter’s WBO super-bantamweight title.
The De Leon-Pe?alosa fight is one of the three world championships slated on March 17 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The card will topbill Marco Antonio Barrera vs. Juan Manuel Marquez for the WBC super-featherweight title, while Johnny Gonzales will defend his WBO bantamweight title against Irene Pacheco. The event will also see an eliminator fight for the WBO jr. welterweight title between American Kendall Holt and Mike Arnaoutis of Greece.
Pe?alosa, 34, left in the last week of January to train at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles to make sure he is well-prepared against the Cuauhtemoc, Mexico champion.
Pe?alosa holds a 51-5-2 win-loss-draw ring record, with 34 wins coming by way of knockout. He stands as tall as De Leon at 5-foot-5-inches tall, but the Mexican champion has a longer reach at 70 inches, against Pe?alosa’s 65.
He is 5-1 in his last five fights, including two by knockout. The latest was against former champion Mauricio Pastrana via a 9th round TKO last September. He’s had two tough wins by decision—gainst Paraguayan Feliciano Dario Azuaga Ledesma and against Mexican Tomas Rojas last July.
His last defeat was handed by Japanese Masamori Tokuyama for the WBC super-flyweight title.
De Leon, on the other hand, won all his last six previous fights, five coming by way of knockout.
His lone defeat was against Celestino Caballero in February 2005 for the IBF super-bantamweight title. In his last win over American Al Seeger, De Leon showed no mercy as he delivered a barrage of power punches before pulling a knockout win in the eighth round.
