Back on March 17th at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, Daniel Ponce de Leon would struggle mightily in retaining his WBO jr. featherweight title against Gerry Penalosa. Despite being the naturally bigger and stronger fighter, Ponce de Leon spent much of the night backing up and jabbing his way to a highly controversial decision.
To many observers it was the worst of Ponce de Leon. Sloppy, clumsy and devoid of any real technical precision.
He won on the scorecards but lost in court of public appeals. ‘See, this is why he was treated like Rodney Dangerfield by the networks and the powers-that-be,’ said his many detractors.
He left a much different impression this past weekend at the Arco Arena in Sacramento, California by blitzing the previously undefeated and highly touted Filipino prospect Rey Bautista in one explosive round.
“I didn’t demonstrate in the Penalosa fight what I wanted to,” he would say last weekend at the post-fight press conference. “I wasn’t hungry and I wasn’t happy. But now, I want them to recognize me. That really got me motivated.”
Ponce de Leon reminds you of past baseball sluggers Steve Balboni and Rob Deer. They have plenty of holes in their long swings and they’re never going to hit for a particularly high average. But they can club the long ball when they do connect. But Bautista’s first of two trips to the canvas came courtesy of a straight left-cross that stunned ‘Boom Boom’ and seemingly had him out on his feet for a split second. It was apparent early on that the shaky whiskers of Bautista would not be able withstand the heavy hands of Ponce de Leon.
“After the first punch I landed, I hit him with a body shot, I noticed I could relax and started jabbing. I felt more relaxed when I saw the body shot, I hurt him. But I locked my punches out and I could feel the power. I just felt it was just a matter of time,” the fighter would say through his advisor, Joe Hernandez.
In a division that is dominated by Israel Vazquez and Rafael Marquez, Ponce de Leon would make a statement. Not that he’s the best 122-pounder on the planet, but that he’s a fighter to be reckoned with. Not stylish in any sense, but strong, durable and can kick like a mule.
Just as jubilant as the fighter was Hernandez, who in the past has had the fervor of a preacher in espousing the virtues of his often dismissed banger. Billy Graham has nothing on this guy. But he’s also been his most blunt critic. He was crestfallen back in March over their poor showing.
“Oh, it was a big burden,” admitted Hernandez of the aftermath of the Penalosa fight. “I mean there was no doubt in my mind the kid’s progress and the kid’s ability. If he had a little more confidence in himself and his execution and balancing, well, there wasn’t any more time left. It was either after four years and five defenses of looking very amateurish and sloppy, to show something for the public, the press, the media, the promoter and now the networks. But most of all, the media that didn’t recognize that this kid’s got something special.”
Well, let’s hold off on the ‘special’ tag as of now. If there’s one consistent thing about Ponce de Leon, it’s his inconsistency. The recent trend has been to follow one eye-opening KO with a, let’s say less than artistic outing.
But at least now when Hernandez makes calls on behalf of his fighter, he may actually get them returned. That wasn’t always the case, not too long ago.
“In the ring, I told Eric Gomez (Golden Boy Promotions matchmaker), ‘We got no respect. But that’s OK. Now, you should respect us as champions.’ His answer was, ‘Joe, now you deserve it.’ So yes, I know that that’s coming. Plus, we got a good team now. We’re backed up with an attorney. So all these little things are going to improve our team. But by the same token we’re going to get the respect we always needed. Not that we deserved, because now we deserve it.
“So now I think we’ll get that respect from a promoter. We can work mutually and happily for the rest of our lives. We don’t care who he goes with, as long as he gets a good purse, gets treated as a champion and be fair with the youngster, that’s all we ask for.”
Hernandez says that the goal is to keep his fighter as active as possible. There is talk of having him back quickly on a smaller setting before getting another marquee fight later in the year.
When asked who they would be targeting next, Hernandez would state: “Right now, he can face any of them. With the confidence that he gained today, he showed me a lot of confidence and I thought that was lacking. Bring on Marquez; it’s not that he’s scared of Celestino Caballero (who gave Ponce de Leon his only loss), it’s really not an attractive fight. I mean if you want to see an attractive fight for the networks, you want Marquez.
“Or we could go to the Philippines with Penalosa. Bring us to the Philippines. Pay him top dollar!”
Which is music to the ears of Penalosa, who earlier in the night stopped Jhonny Gonzalez with a perfectly placed body shot to the ribs of the defending WBO bantamweight champion in the seventh round of their contest.
“I want Ponce,” was his quick reply, when asked who he’d like to face next.
At the time of the stunning stoppage, the veteran was down on the scorecards. “I had to throw a bomb,” he would say. “I knew that he was strong. But he’s weak to the body.”
At the ripe old age of 35, Penalosa, who once had a distinguished run as the WBC 115-pound titlist, put a cherry on top of what can now be considered a Hall-of-Fame career. Look it up, all his losses were tightly contested and controversial bouts that came on the road. Long before any Pac Men made their marks on the world class boxing scene, it was Penalosa that was a forerunner for his country.
“I think Gerry’s been very underrated, the caliber of fighter he is. I really think he’s one of the finest fighters ever to come out of the Philippines, if not the finest technical boxer,” said his manager, Billy Keane. “And hopefully, people now will start to see what he has. I mean, the way he’s fighting now, at this age, after a two-and-a-half-year layoff, I mean, it’s really amazing when you think about it.”
Despite being the older and smaller boxer, it was Penalosa that stalked Gonzalez for much of the fight.
“He was getting closer and closer each round but he had me worried, of course,” said his trainer, Freddie Roach. “Jhonny was keeping his range, he had him moving on him a little bit and Gerry was following him around. But I kept urging him to go to the body because I thought Jhonny had problems making the weight. I thought he actually came in too light. He was two pounds under. But Gerry landed a great shot.”
As for their future, “I would love to see Gerry get a payday. Get a tune-up fight, maybe on Manny Pacquiao’s undercard or something like that,” said Roach, who’s now in the Philippines preparing Pacquiao for his October 6th bout against Marco Antonio Barrera. “I know that’s kind of soon but I’d like to see him fight that fight. Then I’d like to see him fight Ponce in a rematch and then win or lose, retire.”
“The fight Gerry wants is Ponce de Leon at ’22,” said Keane. “He’d love to have that fight and he’d love to have it in the Philippines.”
Everyone seems to be on the same page regarding this rematch. So can it be consummated?
“We’re going to explore that,” says Gomez. “Obviously, it’s a fight that Penalosa really, really wants. I don’t know how Ponce really feels about that yet. We haven’t talked to Ponce but Penalosa is going to take a vacation. He’s going back home. Maybe in about a week or so we’ll start talking about it and see if there’s any interest. If both fighters want to do it, we’ll be more than happy to do it.”
As for the location?
“It all depends on television,” states Gomez. “If there’s support from the television out in the Philippines with ABS-CBN, who we’ve built a nice relationship with and we’ve been working with them for a few fights now. If the money is right, obviously, we have minimums we have to pay these fighters as champions. So if the money is right – and obviously for Ponce, it’s a big risk for him to go to the Philippines – so if the money is right for him, then we can make it happen.
“By all means we’ll make it happen over there.”
Penalosa has no preference on where that fight would take place.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said without hesitation.
And while Penalosa may have earned a return bout against Ponce de Leon, Ponce de Leon may have earned some long yearned for respect.
“Hopefully, they will respect us, now,” he would say. “If not, that respect will come when it’s due.”
FRIDAY FLURRIES
Newly minted WBO featherweight titlist Steven Luevano will make the first defense of his belt against Antonio Davis on October 6th on the Pacquiao-Barrera undercard….A name being mentioned for Alfonso Gomez, coming off his big win over Arturo Gatti, is Ben Tackie in mid-October….Is 170-pounds, where Bernard Hopkins and Winky Wright faced off and the weight limit for Felix Trinidad-Roy Jones a new division? Should we call it the ‘Jr Light Heavyweight Division’?….Congrats to Rock for winning season III of ‘Hell’s Kitchen’….And finally, best wishes and prayers to Top Rank boxing coordinator Mitch Hampp, who has been hospitalized and will be undergoing surgery at Valley Hospital in Las Vegas…..
