PENALOSA?S TUNE-UP OPPONENT A WORKHORSE
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Tue, 20 Jan 2009
The opponent of WBO bantamweight champion Gerry Penalosa in a tune-up fight scheduled for February 21 is a workhorse based on his record last year alone.
German Meraz, the 22 year old opponent chosen by Cotabato vice governor Manny Pinol who is promoting the big fight card in Cebu to face Penalosa has a record of 20-11-1 with 8 knockouts. But the striking statistic is that Meraz fought 13 times last year, winning 8 and losing 5. In fact he had three fights in May alone.
Meraz won his last two fights by stoppage. On November 8, 2008 he scored a 5th round TKO over Juan Chabelas and in a rematch on December 13 won by a 4th round TKO.
The Mexican lost a unanimous eight round decision to undefeated Zsolt Bedak (10-0, 3 KO?s) on September 27 and also dropped a unanimous decision to another undefeated fighter, Hernan Marquez (18-0, 14 KO?s) on July 12 last year.
The only problem regarding the tune-up fight as of now is that it hasn?t been approved by WBO president Francisco ?Paco? Valcarcel who said he would only approve the tune-up fight once the WBO received a signed contract for the announced April 4 title fight between Penalosa and WBO super bantamweight champion Juan Manuel ?Juanma? Lopez.
Penalosa?s manager Billy Keane told www.insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports he was concerned that Valcarcel may get peeved over the fact that the tune-up fight was announced even before it had been sanctioned by the WBO.
However, Keane said he was ?optimistic that the fight will happen? although he indicated that premature publicity won?t help.
Penalosa who is training in the cool summer capital of Baguio City along with IBF/IBO flyweight champion Nonito ?The Filipino Flash? Donaire said training camp was going very well and he feels good about his upcoming title fight against the Puerto Rican sensation ?Juanma? Lopez.
At the same time Penalosa said Donaire who sparred for the first time Monday looked extremely good in four rounds against undefeated ?Wakee? Salud prot?g?, flyweight Rodolfo Sumabong who has a record of 7-0 with 3 knockouts.
Donaire is scheduled to defend his 112 pound title against former world light flyweight champion Eric Ortiz at the Araneta Coliseum on March 15 in a championship doubleheader with Brian Viloria taking on IBF light flyweight champion Ulises Solis in the fight card staged by Top Rank in cooperation with Solar Sports.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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