PE?ALOSA IN STUNNING KO WIN
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 22 Oct 2006
Former WBC super flyweight champion Gerry Pe?alosa scored a stunning ninth round knockout victory over WBO No. 1 Mauricio Martinez of Panama at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas that set him in line for a world title shot.
The 34 year old southpaw who came out of retirement after losing a controversial decision to Masamori Tokuyama in Japan two years ago has been campaigning as a bantamweight and although Martirez, the former champion was favored to win, Pe?alosa wasn’t fazed at all and was in control of the fight scheduled for ten rounds from the beginning.
Trained by the celebrated Freddie Roach at his Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, Pe?alosa dropped Martinez in the very first round but told Viva Sports/Manila Standard Today in an overseas telephone conversation after the fight, that he hurt his hand in that round.
Pe?alosa appeared to shove aside the pain and nailed Martinez again in the fourth sending him to the canvas for the second time before finally putting him away at 1:06 of the ninth round.
Martinez was the former WBO bantamweight champion who lost his title in a controversial decision to Thailand’s Ratanachai Sor Vorapin last year. Ratanachai is the same fighter over whom Pe?alosa scored a sixth round TKO in a WBC International super flyweight title fight in 2000.
Pe?alosa said he was hampered by the injured left hand and couldn’t throw as many punches as he wished after he dropped Martinez in the opening round. With the win Pe?alosa improved to 51-5-2 with 34 knockouts while Martinez dropped to 31-7-1 with 21 KO’s.
Pe?alosa said he had been promised a world title fight by his promoter, Oscar De La Hoya’s Golden Boy Promotions sometime early next year. Pe?alosa said Martinez “didn’t hurt me at anytime because he didn’t connect with any solid blows” against the elusive veteran.
Pe?alosa said Roach was “very happy” over his performance since Roach had predicted in previous interviews with the Manila Standard that Penalosa would once again become a world champion.
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