By Ronnie Nathanielsz
WBO bantamweight champion Gerry Penalosa (53-6-2, 36 KO’s) will get his wish to fight reigning WBO super bantamweight champion Juan Manuel “Juanma” Lopez (23-0, 21 KO’s) but only next February.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports in an overseas telephone conversation that he has an HBO date set aside at the end of February next year and is working on a Penalosa- “Juanma” Lopez title fight.
Arum said he had spoken to Peter Rivera, the manager of the Puerto Rican sensation who wanted to fight Penalosa on the December 6 card headlined by the “Dream Match” between Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao and “The Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas and told him that a Penalosa fight on the same card as Pacquiao-De La Hoya “made no sense.”
However, Arum said he had asked Rivera whether he would be willing to fight Penalosa next February should Lopez win as expected over Sergio Manuel Medina (33-1, 18 KO’s) in December his answer, according to Arum was “yes of course.”
Medina’s only defeat was a twelve round unanimous decision at the hands of current WBO No.1 Rey “Boom Boom” Bautista on May 5, 2007.
Arum promotes Lopez and since Penalosa “is under contract” with Golden Boy Promotions Arum said he would talk to CEO Richard Schaefer “about doing that fight.”
Penalosa’s planned title defenses this year fell through because the veteran southpaw felt a $125,000 purse to fight Nestor Rocha and a $175,000 purse to fight mandatory challenger Abner Mares was not enough. Even if the fight against Lopez was possible this December, Penalosa wanted $250,000 and Lopez himself said he was “asking for too much.”
When we asked Arum about the issue of the purse he said “I think I can get him not exactly what he’s asking for but close enough..
Inside Sports relayed the information from Arum to Penalosa who was happy and thankful that he would get a chance to fight Lopez and earn a good purse.
Penalosa earlier challenged Lopez “to come out of hiding” and face him with Lopez saying he would fight him anytime, anywhere and was confident of knocking out Penalosa who was also at one time the WBC super flyweight champion and one of the Philippines finest boxers.
Lopez won the super bantamweight crown with a sensational first round knockout over the menacing-looking Daniel Ponce De Leon who had earlier scored a unanimous twelve round decision over Penalosa who some writers felt deserved to win even as others questioned the lopsided scorecards of the judges.
Penalosa’s last fight was a successful title defense against Thailand’s former world champion Ratanachai Sor Vorapin over whom he scored an 8th round TKO last April 6. Penalosa indicated he is hoping to have a tune-up fight in Manila before the battle with the hard-hitting southpaw, Lopez who first title defense ended in a stunning 1st round KO of Cesar Figueroa last October 4.
