Daniel Ponce De Leon believes there is a warrior in every Mexican. The WBO super bantamweight champion is no exception. Though he may never be confused with the likes of Marco Antonio Barrera or Julio Cesar Chavez, two technically superior fighters, he most certainly shares their fighting spirit. This is something he attributes to his Mexican/Indian upbringing. He’s reached the biggest stage of his career thanks to a blend of enormous punching power and a non-stop workrate. His promoter Oscar De La Hoya refers to his style as “reckless fury.”
This Saturday De Leon (31-1, 28 KOs) of Chihuahua, Mexico puts his “reckless fury” on display when he faces off against undefeated Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista (23-0, 17 KOs) from Cebu City, Philippines in a scheduled 12 round bout. This is the headliner for a card that is billed as the “World Cup” between the Philippines and Mexico.
The champion has vowed to knockout the up and coming Filipino, whose countryman Gerry Penalosa he outworked last March. Penalosa challenges WBO bantam champ Jhonny Gonzalez on the same card.
Daniel’s recipe for success has been fairly simple: keep on slinging power punches at his opponents – whether it be to the body, head, gloves or arms – until they fall. When they don’t fall, however, De Leon’s lack of technical aptitude can land him in trouble – his negative late fight tactics against Penalosa, as an example. This is why the Chihuahua native is always looking for the knockout, and also why he is fan friendly.
Like many power punchers that rely on their opponents succumbing to big shots, he has never been too concerned in perfecting the basic fundamentals of his craft. Watch Ponce fight and you will see him square up in front of his opponent, hold his chin up high, and throw wide looping punches from the southpaw stance. The results have been hard to argue with at this point, though.
It’s not as if he is lacking in experience or an amateur pedigree. He was an Olympian, competing for Mexico in the 2000 games. He made his professional debut in 2001 with a first round KO of Servando Solis in Juarez, Mexico, followed by a string of impressive early stoppages. News of the up and coming knockout artist spread throughout boxing circles quickly and Golden Boy Promotions signed him to a multi-fight deal. His career was off to hasty start running his record to (24-0, 23 KOs) by the end of 2004.
His first setback came at the hands of current WBA super bantamweight champion Celestino Caballero in February of 2005. In that fight he was out boxed and surprisingly outgunned by the lanky Panamanian. He did not dwell on the defeat though, as many undefeated fighters have a tendency to. Ponce used this as character builder. Though it wasn’t his night, he never stopped coming forward and never stopped throwing punches.
The loss proved to be no disgrace, though: Caballero went on to unseat WBA champion Somsak Sithchatchawal in Thailand, stopped Ricardo Castillo – brother of Jose Luis – last March, and was seen most recently last weekend, outboxing Jorge Lacierva.
Through perseverance and hard work in the gym, De Leon was able to get over it, winning his next seven fights and picking up the WBO bantamweight title along the way against highly touted Thailand native Sod Looknongyangtoy over 12 rounds in October of 2005. He was even more impressive in a rematch against the Thai fighter, knocking him out in the first round in spectacular fashion. These types of brutal knockouts have left boxing fans salivating for more.
Though the Mexican’s career has certainly had its share of successes, he is at a pivotal point. In fights where he has failed to knockout his opponents, he has looked very one-dimensional, beatable even. His over reliance on punching power has been exposed as his major weakness. That is what Bautista and anyone else who fights him will be banking on.
De Leon has been working hard in the gym to overcome his technical deficiencies, but it will be a long process. Perhaps luckily, his challenger, Rey Bautista, is far from a complete fighter. It wasn’t until last May that the 21-year-old stepped up in class against Sergio Manuel Medina. He nearly paid for it, suffering a knockdown and a late standing eight count, before pressing the action to take a hard fought and exciting decision.
Ponce knows who and what he is as a fighter. If he is not able to stop his opponent then chances are he will have a mighty struggle on his hands. He has come to expect this at this level of his profession. Regardless of what tweaks he makes in the gym, his instincts as a fighter will always add for high drama when he’s in the ring.
Despite the setback to Caballero and a sub par performance in his last outing against ring veteran Gerry Penelosa who gave the bigger De Leon all he could handle over twelve rounds, he sits on the brink of bigger and better fights. A win against Bautista could set up a rematch with Caballero, or a possible fight with the winner of the already talked about third bout between Israel Vasquez and Rafael Marquez. Either way Ponce must take care of business on Saturday. You can bet he’ll be looking for the knockout!
