GERRY PENALOSA’S LONG TERM DILEMA

by TED LERNER

36 year old Gerry Penalosa still wants to experience the thrill of victory, like he did in this fight in Manila in 2008.

This is not going to be one of those, “Time to hang up the gloves” columns. I don’t like other people telling me what I should or shouldn’t do. So I make it a point not to tell other people what they should or shouldn’t do with their lives. And I’m not about to start telling Gerry Penalosa either. Already lots and lots of people are calling for Penalosa to call it quits. “Your time is up,” they say. “Your better days are gone. You’re only going to get yourself permanently injured. You’ve had a good run. Enough is enough.”

Some of these may actually be good and valid ideas. There’s no doubt that the more Penalosa fights the more he risks permanent injury, especially brain damage. Certainly nobody would think the worse of Gerry if he indeed decided to walk away from the game right now. He’s already a legend in Philippine boxing and many around the world consider him one of the better little men of the last generation of fighters.

Gerry certainly did himself proud by putting up a helluva fight on Saturday in Puerto Rico against Juan Manuel Lopez. From a guts and courage standpoint it was an impressive effort. He still got the crap kicked out of him. At times it was painful to watch. Most of us knew he had almost zero chance to win going in and there was not a single point in the fight that did anything to sway us in that conviction. Still his guts and determination were awesome against the young buck Lopez. But it was still difficult to watch.

While most were expecting the 36 year old from Negros to immediately call it quits after the fight, Gerry vowed to fight on. He still holds the WBO Bantamweight strap and he feels he has some gas in the tank to properly defend it and make a good payday. In this he’s absolutely correct. With the Pacquiao phenomenon in full swing, there is an ever growing market for Filipino fighters out there. At the same time, the talent is not quite fully developed. Penalosa’s still held in a good light by fans and has some marketability left. His promoter, Bob Arum, is seriously desperate to nurture and grow the Filipino market. Gerry putting his alphabet strap on the line will still make money in the Philippines and perhaps with Filipinos overseas.

It’s a classic case of making hay while the sun is still shining. Indeed there’s not many vocations in the Philippines where Penalosa can earn $50,000 or a $100,000 for a few months effort. Certainly there’s nothing wrong with fighting for the money but Penalosa, at the same time, finds himself in a dilemma.

If Penalosa fights a slickster, a stick and move scientific boxer, the fight will generate little interest and will almost surely be a total bore. Gerry couldn’t fight those kinds of guys when he was in his prime, when he a genius counter puncher. Twice Korean In Joo Choo ran and ran like he was training for the the 100 meter dash in the Olympics. Gerry just couldn’t keep up and track him down. That was when Penalosa was one of the best in the world. What more now?

Penalosa’s style has always been tailored for an opponent who likes to mix it up, to stand and trade and come forward. You could see brief flashes of his brilliance against Lopez. But whereas back in the day Gerry would’ve ducked those bombs and fired back, now he absorbed them and fired back. Against Lopez, he didn’t have the quickness and agility to get out of the way. That’s what relative inactivity and age does to a fighter. That’s why Penalosa took a drubbing. Yes he fought back valiantly. But it was a costly effort.

Clearly Penalosa has to choose his next opponents wisely. For the fight to be marketable he has to find someone who is willing to fight, not run. But he can’t choose a fighter who is too good. Because if he does, he’s very likely to absorb another brutal beating. And one or two more of the kind he received from Lopez, and Penalosa is in danger of suffering permanent injury.

I’m not advising Penalosa to quit. I also do plenty of unhealthy things to my body and I certainly don’t take kindly to other people’s ideas about what is best for me. Then again, the things I do to myself are nowhere near the danger level that boxing is.

Gerry Penalosa just needs take some time off and nurse himself back to health, enjoy his family and look after his various business interests. If he then decides to continue fighting, I say he should go for it and do it with his head held high. But he must choose his opponent very, very carefully. Gerry’s as nice a guy as there is in boxing and nobody wants to see him suffer long term effects of too much punishment, which is more and more likely the more he fights on.