The pressure was on Rey ?Boom Boom? Bautista after the world had just witnessed Gerry Penalosa?s upset knock out victory over the heavily favored Jhonny Gonzalez. Unfortunately for the young Bautista, devastating straight lefts to the nose and chin ended his undefeated streak at 23 and sent him sprawling back to the drawing board in round one.
Penalosa, older and shorter than WBO bantamweight champion Gonzalez, was having trouble reaching his opponent for six rounds. Gonzalez was finding his Filipino foe with long jabs and good combination punching while Penalosa could only leap in with one or two punches at a time.
Then suddenly, a left hook to the liver changed lives. Penalosa hit Gonzalez with the perfect shot and after a brief second, Jhonny went to his knees in obvious pain. There was little attempt to beat the count and an unlikely champion was crowned. The time was 2:45 of the 7th round.
Penalosa, ten years ago the former WBC super flyweight champion, had lost a 12 round decision to Daniel Ponce de Leon in his previous effort and this was to be his last shot at glory. Suddenly, at 35, he is a world champion again.
In picking up a world title in a second weight division, Penalosa improves to 52-6-2 (35 KOs). Gonzalez, 25, drops to 34-6 (29).
In the main event, de Leon proved to be too much for his young opponent, defending his WBO super bantamweight belt in quick time. After trading shots early in the round, de Leon hit Bautista, 21, with a perfect straight left hand that had ?Boom Boom? staggering along the ropes like a sailor with too much drink. Although he beat the count, Bautista was a sitting duck for the champion who quickly decked the challenger again and ended things at 2:30 of the round.
While de Leon, 27, improved to 32-1 (29 KOs) and defended his crown for the fifth time, Bautista fell to 23-1 (17 KOs).
Filipino boxing fans went from ecstasy to agony in mere moments. The team from the Philippines had the world cup in the bag even before the Penalosa fight by winning all four undercard bouts. Then when Gonzalez suddenly went down and couldn?t get up, one wonders if the cheering and celebrating all over the island nation caused a stir on the Richter scale. And just as high as you can get in victory, it all came crashing down when Rey Bautista was demolished in less than a round.
WORLD CUP UNDERCARD RESULTS
Z. Gorres (27-2-1, 15 KO) TKO 8 Eric Ortiz (26-7-1, 17 KO). TIME: 2:15.
A.J. Banal (14-0-1, 11 KO) TKO 3 Jorge Cardenas (9-4-3, 6 KO). TIME: 0:28.
Michael Domingo (32-14-2, 12 KO) W6 Miguel Roman (22-1, 16 KO). Unanimous decision: 60-54; 60-54; 60-54.
Diosdado Gabi (30-3-1, 21 KO) W8 Angel Beranza (30-10-2, 25 KO). Unanimous decision: 80-72; 80-72; 80-72
