MOREL READY FOR PENALOSA
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 03 Feb 2010
Eric Morel.
Former WBA flyweight champion Eric “Little Hands of Stone” Eric Morel (41-2, 21 KO’s) has been waiting to get into the ring against Fernando Montiel (39-2-2, 29 KO’s) of Mexico but due to injuries and other reasons cited by Montiel, Morel didn’t get a chance to fight the Mexican champion..
Now, Morel has to go through tough veteran Gerry Penalosa (54-7-2, 36 KO’s) in a WBO Interim title fight to try and earn a shot at Montiel, the reigning WBO bantamweight champion.
Montiel in turn, has to overcome the challenge of undefeated but inexperienced Ciso “Kid Terrible” Morales (14-0, 8 KO’s) in the blockbuster “Pinoy Power III/Latin Fury 13” fight card at the Las Vegas Hilton on Sunday, February 14, Manila Time.
All five Filipinos on the Top Rank card of promoter Bob Arum hope to give their countrymen a valentine’s day gift but acknowledge it won’t be easy.
Penalosa, the former two division world champion who won the WBO bantamweight title with a stunning 7th round knockout of Jhonny Gonzalez relinquished the title to go after the super bantamweight crown of Juan Manuel “Juanma” Lopez and although he put up a gallant stand got a bad beating that forced trainer Freddie Roach to call a halt in the tenth round.
Penalosa who has been training at the Wild Card Gym with roach has looked good in training videos telecast by ABS-CBN, the giant broadcast network that will cover the fights on a slightly delayed basis.
Pound-for-pound king Manny Pacquiao’s conditioning expert AlexAriza told Penalosa is looking good and sharp and has shown a new-found aggressiveness in sparring.
Morel, who moved his training camp over the past two weeks to Puerto Rico realizes he has a difficult fight. Morel said “I know how good Penalosa is and I know that I need to be at my best to beat him.” He said he feels great and worked hard and said he decided to train in Puerto Rico because of the warm weather and to step up his sparring.
Morel concedes that its been a long time between fights because his planned fights against Montiel “kept falling apart because of his (Montiel’s) injuries.” However, Morel said he has felt good in the gym and is “looking forward to getting in the ring.”
Morel has been training with former trainer Jim Pagan who is reportedly helping the father of Morel – Cerilo Morel – to help in getting the former world champion ready for the Penalosa fight.
The exciting fight card will be headlined by Nonito “The Filipino Flash” Donaire (22-1, 14 KO’s) who had a huge crowd attending his final workout in the Undefeated Gym in California before leaving for Las Vegas.
Donaire looked every inch a champion and trainer Robert Garcia said he was most impressed by Donaire’s speed and his footwork. The WBA Interim super flyweight champion faces rugged Gerson Guerrero (34-8, 26 KO’s) in what is expected to be a war.
Media and fight fans watching the workout applauded several times as Donaire wowed them with his skill, his class and his excellent disposition.
Also on the card world-rated Bernabe Concepcion will face hard-hitting Mexican southpaw Mario Santiago while welterweight Mark Jason Melligen (16-2, 12 KO’s) will face undefeated Raymond Gatica (11-0, 6 KO’s).
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ronnie Nathanielsz.
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