Penalosa Arrives in LA to Prepare for Ponce de Leon
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Sun, 11 Feb 2007
Los Angeles, CA.- Gerry Penalosa, the crafty former WBC and WBF super flyweight champion blew in to town Thursday night. The following day he immediately started training at the Wildcard Gym in Hollywood to prepare for his challenge against Daniel Ponce de Leon of Cuauhtemoc, Mexico. Ponce de Leon is the current WBO super bantamweight champion. The bout is scheduled on March 17th at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas as an undercard of the Barrera-Juarez fight. Also in the card will be Diosdado ?Prince Gabi? against a fighter to be announced at a later date.
Penalosa, who bears the nickname ?Fearless? will significantly go up in weight from super flyweight to super bantamweight to challenge the bigger Ponce de Leon for his title.
Ponce de Leon was penciled-in to fight another Filipino, Rey ?Boom Boom? Bautista as part of a huge Philippines vs. Mexico fight card intended to happen in the Philippines. Somehow the negotiations did not get anywhere and the fight-card was dumped. There were rumors that the handlers of Ponce de Leon feared that there may be a ?hometown? decision if he defended his title in the Philippines. Thus, they refused to go to the Philippines for a fight. Obviously, they felt albeit erroneously, that the Philippines is the same as other Asian countries who are infamous for such acts.
The southpaw Penalosa (51-5-2, - 34KO) will be facing his third consecutive Latino boxer in as many fights. In his last appearance held at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas, held October 21, 2006, Penalosa tangled with Mauricio Martinez of Columbia. He won that fight via a hard fought TKO on the 9th round. Previous to that, on July 2, 2006, he fought a Mexican warrior, Thomas Rojas at the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Quezon City as an undercard of the Pacquiao-Larios tiff. Penalosa won that bout via a 10 rounds unanimous decision.
There is a saying that ?three is a charm.? Hopefully, it will work for Penalosa that way, thus making him a three time world title holder.
Penalosa took this fight in spite of concerns of the size Ponce de Leon and his reputation as a KO artist. In Ponce de Leon?s last three outings he won as follows: Al Seeger - TKO in 8 rounds; Sod Looknongyantoy- KO in 58 seconds of the first round; and Gerson Gurerrero- KO in 2 rounds. But, at age 34, Penalosa is no longer getting any younger and he can not afford to wait much longer for another title shot. Father time is lurking just around the corner. His trainer, Freddie Roach of the fame Wildcard Gym in Hollywood thinks his ward has the skills to out-box Ponce de Leon. Roach feels Ponce de Leon is a tad slower than Penalosa thus he is tailor-made for Penalosa?s style. Penalosa is a refuted fast-as-lightning counter puncher. With proper training and conditioning, Roach believes Penalosa can beat Ponce de Leon.
Penalosa begins training at the Wildcard Gym on Monday under the eagle eyes of Freddie Roach. Roach will be training him until he leaves for Cebu City to be on the corner of Z Gorres who is fighting Fernando Montiel for the WBO Super flyweight title on February 24th. Rey ?Boom Boom? Bautista who is going against Feider Viloria of Columbia for the WBO International Super bantamweight title will also be on the card. When Roach returns to the US to begin training Oscar de la Hoya in Puerto Rico, Penalosa?s training will be supervised by Roach? assistant, Justin Fortune. Fortune, an ex-heavyweight fighter from Australia (15-8-2 - 9KO) and a conditioning and nutrition expert has been with Roach for 14 years and knows the Roach style of training. Roach indicated that he will take time out from the dela Hoya training camp to be with Penalosa?s corner on March 17th. Thus, Penalosa will be in very good hands.
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