PENALOSA WAS TRUE TO HIS NAME
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 26 Apr 2009
They called him ?Fearless? and tonight at Bayamon, Puerto Rico Gerry Penalosa gave true meaning to the name.
Penalosa went to the island paradise at the Caribbean to challenge the incumbent WBO super bantamweight title holder, Juan Ma. Lopez.
From the beginning the odds were stacked against him. First, he was going up in weight, second, he was fighting a young undefeated heavy hitter and third, the fight was at Lopez? hometown.
But Penalosa was not called ?Fearless? for nothing. Thus, he accepted the fight. Check that. In fact, he wanted the fight to show the world that he feared no one in his weight class or those at a notch higher like Lopez.
A Penalosa win would have made it really sweet for the Philippines considering that last week two Filipino gladiators were winners. Nonito Donaire Jr, retained his IBO flyweight crown by stopping Raul Martinez of San Antonio, Texas, and Brian Viloria snatching the IBF light flyweight crown from Ulisis Solis. And, Manny Pacquiao is favored to win against Ricky Hatton this coming Saturday, May 2nd at the MGM at Las Vegas.
But as fate has it, it was not meant to be.
From the opening bell Lopez was the aggressor. He went all out with the intention of having four first round knock-outs in his last four fights. But Penalosa did not allow him that pleasure as he fought as well as he could, occasionally landing his counter right hooks that kept Lopez at bay. As Penalosa indicated after the fight, ? I gave my very best?.
In fact Lopez after the fight indicated that ?Penalosa is a very tough fighter? and his win over him was a ?very hard earned victory?.
As early as the fourth round, it was apparent that Penalosa may have hit a wall. Lopez outworked him many times over and his percentage of punches landed were far more than those of Penalosa. In fact, Penalosa was so busy blocking the multitude of punches coming his way that he only had a few chance to throw his well-known devastating counter punches.
Roach and Penalosa thought that Lopez will tire out after the fourth round as he was throwing hundreds of punches every round.
But he did not.
Thus, after watching his ward hopelessly absorb many punches he told him after the 8th round that he was giving him one more round to KO Lopez or he will stop the fight.
But the 9th round was more of the same. Lopez chasing Penalosa and landing several bombs from every which way. Penalosa just did not have the answer to them.
At the end of the 9th, Roach told Penalosa that he was stopping it and Penalosa did not object. Thus the fight went on the books as a 9th round TKO loss.
The loss was Penalosa?s first time to be stopped by anyone in his long career. But he has nothing to be ashamed about as truly, Lopez is one of the best 122-pounder there is today. He may even be the very best.
So what is now next for Penalosa?
From my humble point of view, I honestly think Penalosa should call it a career. At age 36, he does not have much time to regain his old glory days. Perhaps a nice easy farewell fight could be allowed if only to say that he ended his glorious career on a winning note.
Then he could concentrate on his family and training up-and-coming fighters like Nonito Donaire Jr who incidentally was partly trained by Penalosa for the last fight that he won at Araneta Coliseum last week.
He can even do nothing if he chooses to do so. After all, he gave his all to the sweet science and a long restful life is truly deserved.
Mabuhay ka Gerry and thanks for the memories.
Top photo: Penalosa (L) connects at Lopez during tonight's fight at the Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez in Bayamon, Puerto Rico.
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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