Gerry Peñalosa Not Rushing Prized Ward, Two More Fights to Test Kenneth Llover
By Teodoro Medina Reynoso
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 07 Apr 2025
Peñalosa (L) and LLover after Llover's knockout win in Japan.
Former two divisions world champion now boxing promoter Gerry Peñalosa is not rushing top ward Kenneth Llover to a world title fight saying he wants a couple more fights in the next few months to truly test his readiness.
Peñalosa who runs a promotional outfit carrying his name, GerryPens, bared this in a radio interview via Zoom in the Usapang Sports airing every Saturday 3-5 pm at Radyo Pilipinas Sport with Romuel Alarcon as anchor.
Gerry admitted at first that he was "carried away" by Llover's winning first the interim and later the regular OPBF bantamweight crown by consecutive first round knockout victories against rated Japanese fighters in Japan. He said with the help of some sponsor friends, he sent an offer to IBF titlist Ryosuke Nishida to defend against Llover this June.
Nishida's handlers however said the Japanese champion has a mandatory defense coming up and would not be available until later this year.
That turned out to be a blessing in disguise as Gerry realised they have to be very certain the youthful 22-year-old Llover is truly ready for a world title crack. Proper preparation is very vital in such fistic undertaking Gerry very well knows being a challenger himself before becoming world champion at super flyweight and later at bantamweight in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
Gerry said that Llover received an offer to fight next month in Japan against a Latino opponent but said they have to decline as the planned bout is too soon as Kenneth's last fight was held just two weeks ago.
Peñalosa is lining up Llover for a couple of activity fights after Llover gets back to training and conditioning but apart from expressing preference in taking on Takuma Inoue, a former world champion and brother of Naoya, he said "details of Llover's next two fights will still be finalised by their team".
He said Takuma Inoue will be "a good test" for Llover.
It could be recalled that Llover became interim OPBF bantamweight champion with a first round stoppage over Tulio Dekanarudo last December in Japan.
Last March 24, 2025 Llover completed his conquest of the OPBF championship by decking defending regular titlist Keita Kurihara three times and stopping him also in the very first round of their fight held in Japan.
Before that, Llover defeated China's tough Chen Chen Yang and fellow Filipino former world title challenger Edward Heno.
Llover currently totes an undefeated record of 14 wins, 9 via knockout/stoppage. He is currently rated #12 by the IBF but that would surely change following his exploits in Japan and winning the OPBF bantamweight title.
Gerry said if Llover passes his test fights, he prefers his world title challenge be held in the Philippines so that "his fellow countrymen will see him fight".
But if that is not possible as the "current Japanese world titleholders would not want to leave Japan, we will fight them in their own turf," Gerry said.
The author Teodoro Medina Reynoso is a veteran boxing radio talk show host living in the Philippines. He can be reached at teddyreynoso@yahoo.com and by phone 09215309477.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Teodoro Medina Reynoso.
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