Before Ricky Hatton and Floyd Mayweather face off on Saturday night at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, WBO super featherweight titlist Daniel Ponce de Leon defends his crown against Eduardo Escobedo.
It’s been a productive – if up-and-down – 2007 for the wild-swinging southpaw from Mexico. He would begin the year by winning a highly controversial 12-round verdict against Gerry Penalosa. He would rebound by blowing out Rey Bautista in one explosive round in August and he would then stop Reynaldo Lopez in five rounds in a non-title affair in late September.
Ponce de Leon, who’s hardly a stylist, feels as though he is improving from fight to fight.
“I’ve been connecting and landing my punches better with more experience,” he would say last week through his adviser, Joe Hernandez, in Los Angeles. “I have learned that knockouts, with the balancing and the learning of execution, you don’t have to try and knock them out; it just comes naturally.”
The fight in September was well below his contracted minimum, but for Ponce de Leon, it’s important the he continue to develop and sharpen his skills.
“Not only that, I want to be known and recognized all year round,” he says.
Like many Mexican fighters who don’t speak English fluently, he’s soft-spoken, but hard-hitting. But the man who has continually stumped for his man in the face of many dissenters is Hernandez. Where many others have seen a piece of coal, he has seen a diamond in the rough that he continues to polish.
But even ‘the Puerto Rican’- as he calls himself, because, well, he’s Puerto Rican – has been frustrated at times by the seemingly slow learning curve of his pupil.
“What do you mean ‘at times’!!!,” he says incredulously. “You mean at ALL TIMES!!! When you want to become a doctor, an attorney, you go, four years, eight years, to school, then you practice for another four years. Well, y’know what? I think Ponce’s in the same category. He wasn’t born to be a doctor or an attorney, you have to go to school. And it’s been about four years since his professional career really began, and yeah, it’s about time we see improvement.
“We see improvement in the gym. What I think he was lacking was confidence in himself, his ability and his execution because he really didn’t know the techniques of fighting short-range, medium-range, long-range. So I think that’s been his problem. Not that he was a scared fighter, which many times I would say that. I’ve come to the conclusion now that what I see in the gym, the impression that I see now, I see him more dedicated, doing things he’s never done before. Sparring more – he never wanted to spar more, and is swimming more. So that gives me more confidence.
“Now, will he execute this the day of the fight? We really don’t know.”
The dichotomy is that while Hernandez is Ponce de Leon’s most fervent backer, he’s also his fiercest critic. When you hear Hernandez talk of his ‘execution’, you’re reminded of the John McKay quip when someone asked him about the execution of his hapless Tampa Bay Buccaneers in their initial campaign. He would state bluntly, “I’m all for it.”
And Hernandez has echoed that sentiment before. In the past, he has gone into fights thinking his fighter had made technical improvements, only to revert back to his Geico-style of fighting – which is, y’know, like a caveman.
But the reality is, any advancement in terms of technique will be subtle. At his core, he’ll always be an awkward, lunging slugger who packs a wallop. But Hernandez believes that he has a fighter that is ready to take on the Israel Vazquezes, Rafael Marquezes, Steve Molitors and Celestino Caballeros of the world next year.
“You have to, I mean with Ponce, there’s nothing to protect anymore. As a matter of fact, he’s really not being protected by Golden Boy Promotions – and you can write that – he’s really not being protected that well,” Hernandez would say. “They’d rather protect other fighters. So there’s no protection for Ponce. We would love to freelance, we’d like to work with Showtime if there’s no possibilities available with Golden Boy and HBO because there’s really good money fights out there.
“He’s the champion, he’s got to be respected as a champion. He can’t be humiliated as a non-champion, as a regular fighter. He’s not an elite fighter,” Hernandez admits, but he adds, “He is the champion, he deserves that respect.
“Yes, we would love to go the Philippines and fight Penalosa because the amount of money would be great. We’re not asking for no $800,000, as rumored. We just want a fair purse. If the purse is $400,000 max and that’s the revenue, then that’s what we want. We don’t want to be chiseled into the minimum for going to the Philippines or any other country. We want to explore the Molitors; if it’s Israel Vazquez or Rafael Marquez, that’s what we need. We don’t need to baby Ponce anymore.”
It’s no secret in the industry that the relationship between Ponce de Leon, his manager, and Golden Boy has been contentious. Golden Boy wouldn’t mind an Escobedo victory on Saturday evening.
When asked if he feels properly respected by his own promotional firm, Ponce de Leon, would state, “Not really, I’ve been a champion and I’ve been with them for four years, five title defenses and I still haven’t gotten the recognition as a true champion.”
And Hernandez continues to get on the soap-box and continue to push his cause.
“We want respect from the press and media – and it’s not that we’re getting that respect we deserve, we’re getting what we deserve, right now,” says Hernandez. “We’re going to have to go out there and prove that we are a better fighter, an improved fighter, see if we can attract the press, the fans and the media and then go out there for those elite fighters.
“We would love any of them because that’s the only way that Ponce’s going to make money.”
ESCO
In Escobedo, Ponce de Leon is facing a fighter from the Nacho Beristain school of boxing. His style is very reminiscent of Juan Manuel and Rafael Marquez. And he’s been fighting the last few years at 126 pounds, to boot.
“He’s been training with Ignacio Beristain since he was 13, 14 years old, maybe even younger,” said Jaime Quintana, who manages him and works closely with the noted trainer from Mexico. “He was sparring and training with the Marquez brothers, so he got the style from Nacho.”
An unfocused Escobedo would get stopped in five rounds by Moises Zamudio in October of 2004, leading to a hiatus out of the ring that lasted nearly a year-and-a-half.
“He was living life, he wasn’t paying attention to boxing, he was listening to friends, bad company. But now he’s on the right path,” says Quintana.
At age 23, Escobedo has plenty of time to make up for lost opportunities.
“He realized he liked boxing and he had a couple of fights with a promoter/manager he had. But he thought they were mistreating him and he said, ‘Nacho, would you accept me back in your gym?’ And Nacho said, ?Yes, of course,’ Nacho loved him like a son,” Quintana explains.
Back on the same card that Ponce de Leon stopped Lopez, Escobedo would impressively halt Jose Mendoza in six heats. So both Ponce de Leon and Hernandez have had a good look at him.
“What I see in the youngster is that I think he’s a little green,” said the adviser. “Same thing with Al Seeger, same thing with Rey Bautista, I see that. So I think that’s a plus for Ponce.”
?He?s a good prospect,” said Ponce de Leon in sizing up his opponent. “He’s a young man coming down as a natural featherweight to super bantamweight. He’s got a good style, he’s a good technician, good counterpuncher. But I’m going to stay on top of him, I’m going to rush him and all that beautiful finesse of counterpunching will be over.
“He’ll have no opportunity to do what he wants to do.”
Many insiders believe that Escobedo is a live ‘dog.
“It’s a good fight,” says Eric Gomez, matchmaker for Golden Boy Promotions. “Obviously, Ponce wants to fight the best, he wants all the big names out there. A big fight for him would be the winner of Marquez-Vazquez and this is going to be a big test for him. But I think the public wants to see him in a good fight and this guy possesses all the skills. It’s going to be a very good test for him.”
JMM CONCEDES
After blowing the rematch against Manny Pacquiao a few years ago, Juan Manuel Marquez wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice.
“They put up all the conditions and Juan Manuel accepted them and he said he’s happy that Pacquiao wants to fight him,” said Quintana, who also advises the Marquez brothers.
“Juan Manuel had to give up everything, Pacquiao put up some conditions, Bob Arum put up some conditions, Juan Manuel accepted all the conditions. The money, the weight, the place, everything. Whatever they wanted to do, Juan Manuel said yes.”
THE DEUCE
Here’s what the return of ‘Friday Night Fights’ on ESPN2 looks like early on.
December 28th: Dominick Guinn vs. TBA (Alonzo Butler has a detached retina.)
Jan. 4th: Allan Green-Rubin Williams
Jan. 11th: Edison Miranda / Jean Pascal
Jan. 18th: Tarvis Simms-Ray Joval and Randall Bailey-Sven Paris
Feb. 1st: Monte Meza Clay-Erik Aiken
Feb. 8th: Darnell Wilson- TBA
Feb. 15th: Delvin Rodriguez-Marvin Cordova
Feb. 22nd: TBA
March 7th: Thomas Mashaba-TBA
(Of course, this being boxing, this schedule is subject to change.)
NO-SHOW?
It was widely reported that Allan Green would be facing Andre Ward on HBO’s February 2nd show from St. Lucia. But he had a prior commitment to face Williams on ‘FNF’.
“We wanted the fight bad, but we can’t do well in this business if we break network deals,” said his promoter Tony Holden, who hopes to make Green-Ward later in the year. “Oh, I’d fight him anytime, any place. I’d love to fight him. He wins his fight, we win ours and let’s do it.”
But as of now, Ward, Chris Arreola and WBO welterweight titlist Paul Williams don’t have any confirmed opponents. David Tua and his representatives scoffed at the $75,000 they were offered to face Arreola, and while Carlos Quintana has been mentioned, a fight with Williams has not been officially confirmed.
I guess you can bill this card – TBA.
Or is it, DOA?
Dan Goossen, who is promoting this card, hopes to have this all resolved by Thursday afternoon.
