By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Former world super flyweight champion Gerry Penalosa is in a must-win fight against former WBO bantamweight champion and current No.1 Mauricio "Cry Baby" Martinez on Sunday, Manila Time at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas.
Eric Gomez, vice president and international matchmaker of Golden Boy Promotions earlier indicated that a good showing by Penalosa would almost certainly put him in line for a world title shot.
The 34 year old Penalosa said he is looking forward to this big chance to once again prove his worth and earn a crack at the world bantamweight title. Penalosa has been training since last month at the Wild Card Gym of celebrated trainer of champions Freddie Roach who is both Penalosa’s manager and trainer. Roach himself has said that he believes Penalosa can be a world champion again although he would like to see him fight a little more aggressively.
The stylish Filipino southpaw has a ring record of 50-5-2 with 33 knockouts while Martinez, the reigning Latino bantamweight champion is three years younger at 31 has a record of 31-6-1 with 21 KO’s.
Martinez lost the world title to Thailand’s Ratanachai Sor Vorapin in a majority decision in Bangkok on August 5 last year. Ratanachai is the same fighter overn whomPenalosa scored a sixth round TKO on November 25, 2000 in a WBC International super flyweight championship bout.
Penalosa is coming off an impressive but hard-fought ten round decision over Mexican Tomas Rojas last July 2 on the undercard of the Mano-A-Mano showdown between Manny Pacquiao and Oscar Larios Martinez who won the Latino title with a tenth round TKO over Edinso Torres in November last year is coming off a successful defense against Franklin Varela last May 20 although he was dropped in the first round.
