By Mark Vester
After winning a WBO regional bantamweight title last Saturday in Puerto Rico on the Calderon-Cazares undercard, former champion Eric Morel (39-2, 20KOs) was demanding his shot at the WBO bantamweight champion Gerry Penalosa (53-6-2, 36KOs).
Francisco Valcarcel, president of the WBO, was going to discuss Morel's case at the WBO's November 11 convention in Florida. The most likely plan, according to Valcarcel, would be to order a mandatory eliminator for the end of the year between Morel and undefeated Abner Mares (17-0, 10KOs), with the winner facing Penalosa in early 2009.
That plan went out the window after it was reported a few days ago on BoxingScene.com that Penalosa has opted to accept a $250,000 offer to make his next defense of the title against Mares, who sits at number-one in the rankings. The Penalosa-Mares bout, if everything is finalized, would land on the De La Hoya-Pacquiao undercard on December 6 at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
If Penalosa-Mares is indeed finalized, the WBO will either throw Morel, who is ranked fifth, into a mandatory eliminator against another fighter sitting above him, or make him the new mandatory. How quickly Morel would get a shot depends on what the Penalosa-Mares winner would want to do. Since Penalosa is technically making his mandatory defense against Mares, he could take an optional fight before defending against Morel, the same goes for Mares if he were to win. Either way, Morel may have to wait it out until the middle of 2009 at least.
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