PENALOSA STEPPING INTO THE LION’S DEN

by Ted Lerner

Gerry Penalosa is one of the nice guys in professional boxing. He’s friendly, down to earth and approachable. Whenever I run into Gerry, he’s always got a smile on his face and a positive word about daily life and his future prospects.

Penalosa, (54-6-2, 36 KO’s)however, is heading into some very dangerous territory. Just eight short weeks from now, the current WBO Bantamweight champion will travel across the globe into the backyard of one of boxing’s hottest and brightest young prospects, Puerto Rico’s Juan Manuel Lopez. Not only will the 36 year old Filipino be against a hostile crowd and fast rising star, he’ll be moving up one weight class to fight where he’s never fought before; Jr. Featherweight.

The circumstances, the opponent, the move up in weight are all leading me to an uneasy feeling. If truth be told, I’m actually concerned for Penalosa’s safety.

Penalosa and his supporters might laugh and scoff at my worries. I know Penalosa loves a challenge and plans to put in at least six solid weeks of training in L.A. with Freddie Roach. Roach also plans to be in Penalosa’s corner on April 5th. But I just have to tell like I see it. And what I saw on Saturday night in Penalosa’s fight in Cebu against Mexican nobody Jose Meraz was not encouraging.

Penalosa easily won a lopsided unanimous decision victory over Meraz, who was fighting for the first time outside of Mexico. The fight was an obvious tune-up fight for Penalosa, designed to give him a workout and to showcase his wares in front of his hometown fans. The contest turned out to be a complete snooze fest, with almost no action throughout the fight. Penalosa did manage to knock Meraz through the ropes with a neat left cross in the second round. But beyond that stellar bit of leather, the fight resembled a Tuesday night ballroom dance session of the Geriatric Society.

Granted Meraz ran and didn’t want to engage the entire fight. Penalosa, as crafty a counter puncher as ever stepped inside the ring, always looks bad against runners. We’ve seen this on more than one occasion over the years with Penalosa, much to his fan’s chagrin. Remember Penalosa’s two title fights with Korea’s In Joo Choo? The first fight, in 1998, with Penalosa’s WBC Super Fly title on the line, In Joo Choo ran the entire fight. Penalosa ran after him, but couldn’t catch up. The Filipino looked confused and bewildered. As a counterpuncher he wasn’t used to opponents who didn’t want to engage. Thus, while chasing Choo, Penalosa couldn’t let his hands go. He seemed stuck in the mud. The fight was close but Penalosa lost the title via split decision.

In the rematch a year and a half later, the same thing happened. Penalosa knew what was coming, and had said before the fight that he was ready to cut off the ring and make Choo stand and fight. It never happened. Choo ran and Penalosa once again looked confused. And again he couldn’t let his hands go. He lost again via split decision.
In his prime Penalosa could wow fans everywhere with his beautiful counterpunching style. To watch a boxer make his opponent miss horribly, and then counter him perfectly with a face full of leather, is a beautiful thing to watch. For many years Penalosa had that ability and could execute it to perfection at will. But it appears that time has caught up with Penalosa.

I certainly hope this isn’t the case and I would love for Gerry to prove me wrong come April. But Saturday’s fight against Meraz convinced me otherwise. True, Meraz didn’t care to engage even once throughout the fight. But, at the same time, he seemed such a lame opponent, I couldn’t figure out why Penalosa couldn’t open up and teach him a lesson.
Again Penalosa looked like he was stuck in the muddy lahar ash of Mt. Pinatubo. As he tried to cut off the ring, he had plenty of chances to hammer home a message to the mug of Meraz. Instead he just kept plodding along, his arms up and stuck by his sides. That’s not how you fight a bum like that. Ok, you can let him run for a few rounds, but eventually you have to go out there and teach him a lesson. Especially because you’re in front of your hometown fans, you have to put on a show, a clinic. Unfortunately, Penalosa didn’t do any of this.

Afterwards, Penalosa actually apologized to his fans in Cebu and blamed his poor performance on Meraz’ running style. But I think there’s more to it than an opponent who doesn’t want to fight.

One good indicator, in addition to age, is Penalosa’s relative lack of activity over the last few years. He fought once in 2006, twice in 2007, and once in 2008. When you’re in your mid 30’s, you can’t stay razor sharp when you don’t fight. It’s that simple.

The problem for Penalosa is that he will be facing a fighter who’s been super busy in the last few years,-ten fights in the last two years–is 11 years younger, and by all accounts is hungrier than a Tanzanian hyena who got lost on his way to the dead gazelle feed. Lopez(24-0, 22 Ko’s) has won his last three fights by first round knockout, including a pasting of Daniel Ponce Deleon, whom Penalosa lost to via controversial unanimous decision in March, 2007.

One thing that Penalosa might have going for him in this fight is that Lopez’ style is much more suited for Penalosa’s counterpunching. Lopez has been known to come out guns blazing, looking to destroy opponents early. Penalosa likes this kind of fight. It gives him a chance to sneak in counters and score points.

Lopez, however, is hardly one dimensional. He has honed his game tremendously recently, adding a lot more science to his arsenal. In addition, from what I saw on Saturday night, Penalosa just doesn’t have the zip in his game anymore. And I don’t care how good a counterpuncher you are. You’ve got to be arrowhead sharp to get in there with likes of Juan Manuel Lopez. Especially when you are moving up to his weight and fighting in his home of Puerto Rico.

Penalosa is clearly lucky to have gotten this opportunity so late in his career. No doubt he is going to train as if he’s going to be fed to the wolves, and that will serve him well. But when you put all the circumstances and facts together for this fight, it’s obvious that Penalosa is going to be up against the biggest odds of his career. Odds so big that he might just be putting himself into harm’s way.

So you think the alphabet organizations have made boxing a difficult sport to follow? Wait, you haven’t seen or heard the least of it yet.

* * *

One fight on the undercard of Saturday’s show in Cebu was between Filipino Rolando Magbanua, a good looking, undefeated prospect from Mindanao against Jose Miguel Cota of Mexico. The fight was billed as being for, get this: “The interim WBO Oriental Bantamweight Title.” The fight was presented as if it was a real championship bout, complete with national anthems and suited officials standing in the ring.

It all has questions swirling around in my confused head, such as:

Can somebody please tell me the difference between the WBO “Oriental” and the WBO “Asia Pacific” titles?

When every single fighter in Asia finally has a belt around his waist, do you think that’s going to help us follow the sport even more? Or just confuse us more?

Who decided that this most important of titles was only “interim?”

Do promoters actually hand over money for this crap?

This article originally appeared on asianboxingnews.com