By Ronnie Nathanielsz
WBO bantamweight champion Gerry Penalosa insists he hasn’t relinquished his 118 pound title even though he is moving up in weight in a planned title fight against WBO super bantamweight champion Juan Manuel "Juanma" Lopez.
Top Rank promoter Bob Arum told us that the fight against Lopez is scheduled for April 25 in Puerto Rico and that the fight contract was on the way to Penalosa through his manager Billy Keane and the veteran southpaw should receive it by the weekend.
The only hitch according to both Arum and Keane is that Penalosa had wanted to acquire the Philippine television rights for the Lopez fight and offset the rights fee with a corresponding reduction in his purse. However, Arum said that is "impossible" because he reportedly has a deal for Top Rank fights with Solar Sports.
The problem that has surfaced is that Penalosa signed a two-fight TV rights deal with the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN and at present cannot deliver on the Lopez title fight.
However, Penalosa hopes to be able to resolve the problem amicably.
The world champion who is currently training in the summer capital of Baguio alongside IBF/IBO flyweight champion Nonito "The Filipino Flash" Donaire told BoxingScene.com, Insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports that he was not relinquishing his title to fight Lopez.
Penalosa was reacting to a brief report on the widely-read site, Boxing Scene where the WBO had scheduled a purse bid for Penalosa’s mandatory challenger Eric Morel to fight Fernando Montiel for the WBO bantamweight title currently held by Penalosa.
The Penalosa-Morel purse bid was earlier called off because of the planned Penalosa-Lopez title fight.
The Morel-Montiel purse bid was approved at the request of PR Best Boxing’s Ivan Rivera and is set for February 5 with a minimum bid of $100,000. However, Penalosa maintained that the fight will have to be for the interim title since he hasn’t relinquished his title.
