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Philippines, 28 Nov 2024 |
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Not Much of a Tune-up By Carlo Pamintuan PhilBoxing.com Sun, 22 Feb 2009  By now, everyone probably knows that Gerry Pe?alosa (54-6-0) won via unanimous decision over German Meraz (20-12-1). This fight was supposed to be a tune-up for Pe?alosa?s fight against Juan Manuel Lopez (24-0-0) this April in Puerto Rico. However, everyone who saw the match will most likely say that this fight was not much of a tune-up at all. The first round was a tad slow, as are 90% of all first rounds in boxing; nothing wrong with that. The two fighters were just trying to feel out their opponents and get their sweat going. Business picked up considerably in the second round as the combatants threw more punches in the early goings. Pe?alosa decked Meraz in the middle of the round that sent the Mexican out of the ring. Meraz beat the count and went on to eat a wicked punch from Pe?alosa that shook him up pretty bad. From that point on, the action took a nose-dive. Meraz probably felt the power of Pe?alosa and realized that he would be in a world of hurt if he stood toe-to-toe with him so Meraz got on his bike and rode in tirelessly around the ring. Rounds three to ten were exactly the same. Pe?alosa tried his best to engage Meraz into a fight while the Mexican gracefully waltzed his way around the ring to avoid getting hurt. He did his best impression of a ballet dancer who tiptoed his way around the ring while occasionally extending his arms Pe?alosa?s general direction, which would have registered in CompuBox as missed punches. It was so clear that Meraz was not even trying to win the fight and it even got to a point where referee Bruce McTavish had to step in and almost plead Meraz to fight. The unfortunate commentators were really trying to make sense of the Mexican?s tactics. They said that Meraz could just be trying to tire out Pe?alosa and will mount a full-scale attack in the later rounds but it was obvious that this was just a line that they had to say to keep the viewers watching. It was obvious that even they knew that Meraz was in no mood for a fight. The problem with this fight is that the promoters paid Meraz a good amount of money to fight Pe?alosa. The promoters spent for the plane tickets and accommodation for the Meraz and his entire team, which is by no means cheap specially in this economic situation. However, Meraz basically went here, collected his paycheck, fought for six minutes, and jogged around the ring for the next twenty four minutes. A punching bag would have posed a bigger challenge for Pe?alosa this night as the best offense Meraz got in was a headbutt that caused a small cut on Pe?alosa?s brow. It is quite amusing that there was so much brouhaha over Meraz being tagged as a ?workhorse? by another writer when ?race? was the better prefix for ?horse? in this case. Meraz could have given Usain Bolt a run for his money in a hundred meter dash or challenged Lance Armstrong in a bike race but boxing apparently was not a part of his itinerary for his trip to the Philippines. Meraz disrespected Pe?alosa by not giving him the fight he deserved, the promoters by not performing up to the level that was expected from him, the multitudes of fearless Mexican fighters by misrepresenting them, and the Filipino boxing fans who paid to see it live or watched until past midnight for by ruining what could very well be Pe?alosa?s last fight in the country. Filipinos are tremendous boxing fans that when they start heading for the exits with two rounds still left in a fight, specially in a match involving the much-revered Pe?alosa, you know that there was something horribly wrong in the situation. Filipino fans appreciate effort from local as well as foreign fighters. They gave much love to Oscar Larios and David Diaz even though they lost just because they put up good fights and went down swinging. I think it is safe to say that this is the last we will see of Meraz fighting in this country. Let us all just hope that whatever Pe?alosa got in this so-called tune-up fight was enough to get his groove going up until he meets up with Lopez for his WBO super bantamweight title. Top photo: Gerry Penalosa (L) sends German Meraz to the ropes in a second round action during their fight Saturday night at the Cebu Coliseum in Cebu City. Photo by King Catriz. Click here to view a list of other articles written by Carlo Pamintuan.  |
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