By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Former WBC super flyweight champion Gerry Penalosa will be featured on the undercard of Filipino ring idol Manny Pacquiao’s planned tune-up fight against former super bantamweight champion Oscar Larios either in late June or early July.
Pacquiao’s friend and confidant, boxing manager and promoter Rex “Wakee” Salud disclosed they had decided to give Penalosa one more chance to try and regain a world title and would match him against a solid opponent “to see whether Gerry still has it in him.” Salud who once managed Penalosa said the technically sound fighter was “very unlucky,” losing title fights by close and controversial decisions.
Both Freddie Roach and Buddy McGirt who trained Penalosa also shared the view that Penalosa was a talented boxer who could regain a world title. Roach himself predicted Penalosa could defeat reigning world bantamweight champion Rafael Marquez.
Penalosa said he was grateful for the chance to fight on the Pacquiao undercard and indicated he is in training and ready to prove himself. In his last outing Penalosa scored an impressive ten round decision over Argentine bantamweight champion Dario Azuaga last December.
Pacquiao and Salud met with ABS-CBN owner Gaby Lopez Tuesday night to thresh out details of the Manila fight. Pacquiao earlier signed a lucrative agreement with the giant TV network that Roach himself praised especially in view of HBO’s reluctance to come to Manila to cover Pacquiao’s fight because of perceived political instability.
Under the agreement ABS-CBN will handle all expenses including the purses of Pacquiao which was reportedly $1.2 million and Larios or any other opponent and would also give Pacquiao a share of the profits from gate receipts, local television and international pay-per-view.
At the same time Salud insisted that Pacquiao would accept the challenge of WBC super featherweight champion Marco Antonio Barrera for a rematch but at the proper time. Salud noted that WBC president Jose Sulaiman had announced that the winner of the Pacquiao-Erik Morales rematch would get a mandatory shot at Barrera’s title but that after Pacquiao won Barrera signed to fight Jose Luis Castillo for the lightweight title.
Salud said “its only because the fight was cancelled that Barrera wants to fight Manny when the WBC should have stripped him of the title when he signed to fight in a higher weight division.” Salud said that after the Manila fight and a third encounter with Morales which Pacquiao’s manager Shelly Finkel said is set to take place later this year, Pacquiao would gladly face Barrera in a rematch.
