PENALOSA MEDIA WORK OUT IN PUERTO RICO
By Dong Secuya
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 22 Apr 2009
GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico -- Gerry Penalosa will be more than just a name to the many Puerto Ricans whose excitement and expectation are building up for this Saturday's fight with young boricua boxing sensation Juan Manuel Lopez as Penalosa worked out in front of the Puerto Rican media this afternoon at the well-known Wilfredo Gomez gym here.
Representatives of the local radio and TV stations as well as the four newspapers in the island, followed the unsassuming Penalosa do a 1-hour workout as he shadow-boxed, did the mitts and stretching exercises with his brothers/trainers Jonathan and Carl Penalosa.
The Puerto Rican media treat Saturday's world championship event as one of the major boxing events in the island "maybe not as huge as a Tito Trinidad fight but comparable to a Miguel Cotto fight," according to a journalist from Primera Hora newspaper. Trinidad is the highly popular Puerto Rican welterweight and middleweight world champion and Cotto, from Caguas, is on the verge of superstardom before he was stopped by the Mexican Antonio Margarito in their welterweight title bout last year for his lone defeat.
Juan Manuel Lopez, 25, who hails from Bayamon where the fight will be held at the Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez on Saturday, has an undefeated record of 24 wins with 22 knockouts with the last three all ending in the very first round sending murmurs in he boxing world that a new boxing star has risen from the small U.S. territory in the Carrebean.
But the veteran Filipino ring strategist Penalosa (54-6-0 36KOs), who is now in the twilight of his career at age 36 but has never been knocked down by anyone, calmly told the Puerto Rican press in an interview after the workout that "I love to fight JuanMa and I will surprise him. Our team has a plan, A, B and C. Whatever he brings to he table, we are ready for him."
Notes... The Wilfredo Gomez gym is the biggest gym in Puerto Rico and is home to six world champions including Ivan Calderon, Hector Camacho and the gym's namesake. oscar de la Hoya trained here during his fight with Floyd Mayweather, Jr. in May, 2007 and where Filipino prospects Rey 'Boom Boom' Bautista and AJ 'Bazooka' Banal also trained with De La Hoya during that time.
Top photo: Gerry Penalosa with brother/trainer Jonathan Penalosa at the Wilfredo Gomez gym in Puerto Rico during today's media workout.
Penalosa being interviewed by the Puerto Rican press after today's media workout at the Wilfredo Gomez gym in Guaybano, Puerto Rico.
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