By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Photo © Chris Cozzone/FightWireImages

Former WBC super flyweight champion Gerry Penalosa went up two divisions to fight the bigger and stronger WBO super bantamweight champion Daniel Ponce De Leon but after a gallant effort lost a unanimous twelve round decision at the Mandalay Bay Resort Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, yesterday.
 
However, the lopsided scorecards of judges Chuck Giampa,  Dave Moretti and Nelson Vazquez lived up to the growing notoriety of the WBO as well as the  Nevada State Athletic Commission which chooses the judges for fights in Las Vegas. When the decision was announced the huge audience watching the fight “live” in the ABS-CBN studios in the telecast hosted by Korina Sanchez let out a collective boo and cries of disbelief.
 
In an absolutely unbelievable assessment, judge Dave Moretti had Ponce De Leon winning every round for a 120-108 shutout while Chuck Giampa who last February 25 conspired with Raul Caiz Jr and referee Samuel Viruet to rob Z ”The Dream” Gorres of the WBO super flyweight title against Fernando Montiel had Ponce De Leon the winner 119-109 which was the same scorecard turned in by Nelson Vazquez.
 
WBC founding secretary general Rudy Salud who for some years managed Penalosa said we could all be proud of Penaloda’s performance saying “he surpassed all his past performances in title fights against In Joo Cho and Masamori Tokuyama and surprised all of us with the way he fought.” Salud blamed what he termed “a ridiculous rule adopted a few years ago that mandates judges to have a winner in every round even if it should be a draw. As a result the many close rounds were scored for the champion because he threw more punches.”
 
Salud said Penalosa simply couldn’t cope with the reach, height and power advantage of Ponce De Leon but hoped that he would be given a crack at the bantamweight title of any of the world organizations because he believed Penalosa still had it in him to become a world champion.  
 
While Penalosa, a 21-1 underdog according to his wife Goody ,  scored with effective and crisp combinations the champion hardly stopped throwing punches except in the last three rounds after he hurt his left hand and decided to stay out of Penalosa’s range which frustrated the 34 year old southpaw . After the fight Ponce De Leon wore shades to cover his bruises and indicated he was ready to give Penalosa a rematch.
 
Penalosa demonstrated his superior skills in blocking or avoiding many of Ponce De Leon’s punches but the punch stats eventually proved decisive with the champion throwing more than 100 punches per round to outwork Penalosa by a landslide. Total punches thrown were 1399 to 481 in Ponce De Leon’s favor.
 
Penalosa caught Ponce De Leon with a hard right to the side of the head in round two but after the champion was all over Penalosa in the fourth round the game challenger responded to the pleadings of cornerman Justin Fortune to throw more combinations  and took the fifth round with some well-timed shots.

A left flush on the face of Ponce De Leon appeared to give Penalosa the edge in round seven and while Ponce De Leon threw lots of punches in the eighth Penalosa rocked him with a solid right towards the end of the round.
 
Going into the final round Fortune who was substituting for celebrated trainer Freddie Roach who was busy preparing Oscar De La Hoya for his blockbuster showdown with Floyd Mayweather on May 5 told Penalosa he had to go for a knockout but sensing he had the fight won the champion continued to dance out of trouble to retain his title and improve his record to 33-1 with 28 KO’s. Penalosa dropped to 51-6-2 with 35 KO’s.