By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Former WBC super flyweight champion Gerry Penalosa who battles Mexico’s Tomas Rojas on one of two fights on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao-Oscar Larios showdown n July 2 at the Araneta Coliseum said yesterday he will “give everything in this fight because I want to be a world champion again.”
Penalosa who trained along with Pacquiao at Freddie Roach’s Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles said he was in “great condition and ready as ever” after weeks of hard training during which he sparred mostly with tough Mexicans.
Penalosa who has a ring record of 49-5-2 with 33 KO’s said he “wants to win impressively” in order to earn a title shot at WBC bantamweight champion Rafael Marquez. Roach said Penalosa was an excellent fighter who could beat Marquez and become a world champion once again. Roach worked Penalosa’s corner when he lost a controversial decision to Japan born North Korean Masamori Tokuyama.
Rojas is also a southpaw like Penalosa and has a ring record of 22-8 with 14 knockouts and is coming off back-to-back losses. He dropped a split decision to Luis Maldonado last October 29 and then lost a unanimous ten round decision to Jose Nieves last April 22.
