By Ronnie Nathanielsz
WBO bantamweight champion Gerry Penalosa’s bravado in challenging Puerto Rican sensation Juan Manuel Lopez, the reigning WBO super bantamweight champion to “stop hiding” and to fight him hasn’t apparently worked.
Penalosa’s manager Billy Keane in an overseas telephone conversation with insidesports.ph, Manila Standard and Viva Sports said “Juanma turned the fight down.”
Keane said that Top Rank promoter Bob Arum “doesn’t want to do the fight” on the undercard of the “Dream Match” between Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao and “The Golden Boy” Oscar De La Hoya.
Keane believes that as far as the promoters are concerned there is “no need to put another Filipino on the fight card” He pointed out that “every Filipino is going to buy because of Manny and every Mexican is going to buy because of Oscar.”
As a result of the planned fight falling through Penalosa’s manager said “its back to the drawing board” with Penalosa’s demand for a relatively big purse proving to be a major stumbling block.
Golden Boy Promotions told us some time ago that the title defense against Nestor Rocha didn’t push through because they upped an original offer to $125,000 but that Penalosa demanded $150,000.
Penalosa himself then tried to entice Rocha to fight him in Tubod, Lanao del Norte. Golden Boy Promotions who handle Rocha agreed on a $75,000 purse for the Mexican but the fight failed to push through with those who agreed to bankroll the card pointing to the peace and order problem after hostilities between government troops and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front broke out in the region.
Golden Boy moved to have Penalosa fight mandatory challenger Abner Mares on the Pacquiao-De La Hoya fight card and offered Penalosa $175,000 but the veteran wanted $250,000. Eventually, that title fight also failed to push through after Mares was found to have a detached retina and would have to undergo surgery which would keep him out of action for some months.
The last hope was to get Arum to agree to have Lopez defend his 122 pound title against Penalosa on the Pacquiao-De La Hoya fight card at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas on December 6 but Arum reportedly felt there was no need to spend substantial amounts on the purses of Penalosa and Marquez because it wouldn’t bring in additional revenues.
The problem obviously was that if Penalosa received $250,000 Juanma would rightfully expect the same amount at the very least remembering that Lopez won the title with a spectacular first round knockout of Daniel Ponce De Leon who had earlier scored a lopsided points decision over Penalosa and that Juanma scored another sensational first round KO in his initial title defense.
