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JUAN MANUEL LOPEZ - BRILLIANT, DYNAMIC AND STRONGER, BUT LESS SENSATIONAL AND LESS IMPRESSIVE By Granville Ampong PhilBoxing.com Mon, 27 Apr 2009 SIDE BAR COMMENTARY - No doubt, Juan Manuel Lopez (25-0, 23 knockouts) brutally punished the old, rugged Gerry Penalosa at every angle. But, he was unsuccessful in his bid. His intent was to knock out the Filipino fighter in one of the early rounds in their supposed to be 12-round of boxing for the WBO Super Bantamweight Championship in his own hometown before the raucous crowd at the Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez in Bayamon, Puerto Rico last Saturday. Yes, it was aborted after the ninth on account of Penalosa's trainer, Freddie Roach, bidding true to his statement he spelled out to his fighter beforehand that if Penalosa 'can't knock out' Lopez thereafter, then he 'will stop the fight'. But, even after twenty-seven minutes of absorbing four hundred forty-four punches to the body and upstairs combined, Penalosa (54-7-2, 36 knockouts), stood his ground proving his fearlessness and formidable strength, making Juan Manuel Lopez's victory over him by referee technical decision less than fully convincing and fulfilling, at least to the intimation of some boxing pundits. In fact, many did question Roach's decision as to why he stopped the fight when Penalosa can still throw his punches, in that his fighter was not bleeding nor disoriented at all, nor was Penalosa gasping for pure air. And they further supposed: "What if Freddie Roach stopped the fight between Morales-Pacquiao I before the eleventh? There could have been no Morales-Pacquiao II. Nor a trilogy." Could this be symptomatic of Freddie Roach's traumatic experiences from his own knockout losses from Andy Nance (1986), Greg Haugen (1985) and Marvin Galvin (1982)? Or, simply put, was he just cautious of the potential damage Lopez's power shots can inflict to Penalosa's health, if not life in particular? And while it is true that Lopez broke all static guards of Penalosa, his consistent advances hitting Penalosa heavily to the body and to the chin did not seem to make the 36 years old fighter falling out of his neuro-vascular stability. This much must be known: Never close the possibility as one may rather extrapolate that if only Penalosa were a hard-hitting puncher, then the tempo of the fight may just have shifted to his favor. But, he's not. Despite his petrified physique, he did not possess an electrifying, one-punch knockout. The perfect punch he delivered to the body that took down Johnny Gonzales two years ago was just a lucky one. And that was not his trademark. Conversely, based on that fight and contrary to some boxing aficionados and fans, Lopez's vulnerability may just have been exposed: He is less devastating and less ferocious than what they think he is. In fact, Penalosa took his punches well on many occasions in the last three rounds. And, despite those stormy rounds, Lopez still failed to deliver a marginal damage upon his smaller, older opponent. In fact, the latter was still throwing his own sporadically. Yes, Lopez is brilliant and dynamic. But, Penalosa, paradoxically, made him less sensational and less impressive in their ever classic fight. The reigning champion of Puerto Rico can't just send the Filipino to the canvas. Nevertheless, who knows what would take place after ninth round. It may have been the big surprise that Penalosa had been promising all along - at least not just to the boxing pundits, but to the adoring Puerto Ricans as well. Meanwhile, Penalosa drew standing ovations from the same aficionados and fans in that high night of Puerto Rico right after the fight, according to one of the spectators. Penalosa, indeed, surprised Lopez, defaulting the latter's menacing intent to hand him his first professional knockout loss. Nonetheless, Penalosa really fought a good fight of faith. It was the unfailing faith of the Maharlikan blood. For comments, please cick here. Note: Granville Hayag Ampong is an L.A.-based journalist regularly writing for Philboxing.com, Manila-US Times, California Examiner, Nevada Examiner, AmericaFront.com, BoxingRepublic.com and Maharlikan Times. You may visit the author's site at www.maharlikantimes.com or simply e-mail your comment(s) to granvilleampong@maharlikantimes.com Click here to view a list of other articles written by Granville Ampong.  |
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