MANILA, Philippines - Gerry Peñalosa lost the fight but his courageous effort was worthy of a purple heart as he took a severe beating from WBO superbantamweight champion Juan Manuel Lopez but never went down before trainer Freddie Roach stopped the carnage at the end of the ninth round at the Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, last Saturday night.
Lopez, 25, took every round and unloaded his entire arsenal of punches on Peñalosa but couldn’t floor the gutsy Filipino. In the eighth, he landed 87 of 136 blows – a record in computer boxing statistics – and it had to be a 10-8 score even without a knockdown.
In the end, the stats showed Lopez connected on 444 of 1,020 punches compared to Peñalosa’s 99 hits.
Despite the disparity, Peñalosa refused to back down. He engaged Lopez from start to finish, battling toe-to-toe to negate the Puerto Rican’s advantage in fighting from a distance. Occasionally, Peñalosa unleashed left and right hooks to the head but Lopez was unperturbed.
Peñalosa, 36, made Lopez miss often but it made no difference as Lopez’ volume of punches didn’t give the Filipino a chance to set up. Lopez was clearly the bigger and stronger fighter. Forced to fight defensively because of Lopez’ attacking style, Peñalosa was reduced to throwing a punch at a time.
Evident was Peñalosa’s heart. He took everything that Lopez dished out, hoping to tire out the younger fighter and mount a late rally, but the Puerto Rican never faded.
Peñalosa’s trainer Freddie Roach wanted to stop it at the end of the eighth but Peñalosa pleaded for one more round. At the end of the ninth, Roach put his foot down even as Peñalosa begged to continue fighting.
“Gerry wanted to go on,” said his brother Jonathan, a one-time WBC flyweight title challenger who worked with Roach in the corner. “Freddie felt it was useless to continue because he didn’t want Gerry to get hurt any more. Lopez was too big, too strong and very durable.”
Despite the one-sided defeat, Peñalosa said he’s not hanging up his gloves.
According to Jonathan, WBO president Paco Varcarcel confirmed that Peñalosa is still recognized as the WBO bantamweight champion and will stake his crown against the June 27 winner of the Fernando Montiel-Eric Morel eliminator in Atlantic City.
Jonathan said Peñalosa will slide down to the 118-pound division and forego venturing into the higher weight classes.
Asked if he’ll continue fighting, Peñalosa said in a text message: “Yes, laban pa.”
Montiel, 30, won the WBO interim bantamweight title via a third round stoppage of Diego Silva last March to raise his record to 39-2-1, with 29 KOs. He has won his last seven fights, including a split decision over Z Gorres in Cebu City in 2007. Morel, 33, has a 41-2 record, with 21 KOs, and has won his last six. Both Montiel and Morel have never been stopped.
Montiel’s losses were to Jhonny Gonzalez on a split decision and Mark Johnson on a majority verdict. Morel bowed to Martin Castillo and Lorenzo Parra on unanimous decisions.
“Gerry fought a game fight,” said Roach. “Lopez was just too strong and overpowering. It pained me to stop the fight but I didn’t want Gerry to absorb more damage.”
It was Peñalosa’s first loss inside the distance. His record dropped to 54-7-2, with 36 KOs. Lopez raised his mark to 25-0, with 23 KOs.