PENALOSA WON?T FIGHT ROCHA IF PURSE ISN?T INCREASED
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 22 Jun 2008
WBO bantamweight champion Gerry Penalosa says he won?t take the offer of a title defense against Nestor Rocha if Golden Boy Promotions won?t increase its offer of a $100,000 purse.
The Penalosa title defense against the 5?7? Rocha who is 25 years old is scheduled to take place on the undercard of the battle between lightweight champion Joel Casamayor and former WBC super featherweight champion Juan Manuel Marquez on September 13 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
Penalosa had wanted the Philippine television rights on top of his purse offer of $100,000 but since was informed by his manager Billy Keane that the TV rights had already been acquired by the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN, he pushed for a bigger purse otherwise he was not inclined to fight.
Penalosa told Viva Sports that Keane promised to try and negotiate for a bigger purse and would get back to Penalosa next week. Penalosa noted that Rocha was no pushover with a fight record of 18-1 with 6 knockouts.
In the meantime Keane said they were talking to former world champion Rafael Marquez but the possibility is that a fight against Penalosa mayl happen later in the year. Keane also said that there was ? an outside chance that a fight with champion Israel Vasquez can may happen next year.? Keane said there is no possibility of a fight against newly-crowned WBO super bantamweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez saying ?its not there for him (Penalosa).?
Keane said he hopes Penalosa will take the Rocha fight because ?I need Gerry to be seen on US TV because it will be much easier to make these bigger fights happen if people see him.?
Being on a major pay-per-view card Keane said an impressive performance by Penalosa would make fight fans want to see him again.
The only loss of Rocha, the 25 year old American from California, was a six round unanimous decision to Jonas Hernandez on September 7, 2007. Rocha quickly came back from the loss to score a ninth round TKO win over Cesar Morales on November 2, 2007.
Hernandez who had beaten WBO champion Lopez during his amateur days was killed in an ambush the other day when responding to a friend?s call for help in Puerto Rico.
Penalosa who turns 36 on August 7 has a record of 53-6-2 with 36 knockouts. After dropping a twelve round unanimous decision to Ponce De Leon in a title fight on arch 17, 2007 Penalosa came back to win the WBO bantamweight crown with a spectacular one-punch knockout of Jhonny Gonzalez on August 11 last year. He then scored an eighth round TKO victory over former champion Ratanachai Sor Vorapin of Thailand in a title defense last April 6.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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