Peñalosa's grit and courage

It was simply a matter of a good, young and stronger fighter overpowering a good, much older and smaller but courageous and game warrior. That’s basically the story of the failed bid of Gerry Peñalosa to wrest the World Boxing Organization (WBO) super bantamweight title of Puerto Rican Juan Manuel (Juanma) Lopez at the Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. Had Peñalosa won, he would have captured his third world title after annexing the World Boxing Council (WBC) super flyweight and WBO bantamweight titles earlier.

Peñalosa, now with a 54-7-2 (win-loss-draw) record with 36 knockouts, was prevented from answering the bell for the 10th round by trainer Freddie Roach who was quoted by liverpuncher.com as having said, “Juanma was just too strong. It was very difficult for me to stop the fight but (Gerry) was just taking too much punishment….I would have stopped the fight sooner but I thought Gerry is an experienced guy and I thought Juanma would get tired but he didn’t.”

I also thought that Peñalosa would be able to spring some kind of a miracle even if in my own scorecard, he had lost seven of the nine rounds and was, by my own estimate, being outpunched four or five to one. Liverpuncher.com reported that Lopez threw over 1,000 punches in the nine rounds of action landing as many as 40 power punches in any one round, a record for the 122-pound weight class. Eastsideboxing.com said that the still unbeaten (25-0), shooting star Lopez landed 80 power punches in one round to Peñalosa’s body and head, too much for a veteran pro like Peñalosa who has neither been knocked out nor decked in his 20-year career interrupted by a two-year retirement.

 While I agreed with Roach’s decision, I felt that he could have stopped it three rounds earlier but just wanted to give Peñalosa all the chances at the latter’s last attempt at greatness through a third world title at the over ripe age of 36. 

To Filipinos who had been fed with a steady diet of spectacular knockout victories by Pinoy pugilists over Latinos, the sight of the game Peñalosa being pummeled and bullied, seemed, at times, surreal. Despite the beating Peñalosa absorbed, he was however able to land some clean punches in a number of toe-to-toe exchanges that the Cebu-based veteran did not hesitate to engage in. One simply could not get any gutsier than that and our only fear was the permanent damage the number of blows absorbed by Peñalosa could inflict on his otherwise healthy body.

As I waited for Peñalosa to live up to his reputation as a skilled technician and tactician, I too could feel the pain of each blow that Lopez ripped through Peñalosa’s already solid defense, a defense that enabled the Filipino to stay up on his feet in all his 62 previous fights.

Like millions of Filipino fight fans, I could only watch helplessly as Lopez put on a display of strength, speed and combinations. To distract myself from the punishment Peñalosa was receiving, I engaged in wishful thinking, saying to myself, if only Peñalosa was 30 when he met this Puerto Rican at his present age of 25 and with his 24-0 record, Peñalosa would have beaten the hell out of this Latin idol.

Lopez, who has now scored 13 consecutive knockouts, is said to look forward to moving up to the 126-pound featherweight class where he will be meeting up with guys his size. He has signified interest in taking on either Israel Vazquez or Rafael Marquez.

What would happen if Lopez fights somebody like Nonito Donaire at 122 pounds, assuming the latter can move up three divisions, from 115 pounds (the super flyweight division that Donaire says he wishes to move up to) to 122 pounds, say in two years, and assuming that the former can still campaign in the super bantamweight division two years from now? That would be a very interesting fight since the Puerto Rican will be facing an opponent who is just as tall, has as long a reach as he has, is of almost the same age, packs more power than anyone Lopez has ever tangled with and has tremendous hand speed.