By Jake Donovan
There was a fair amount of head-scratching going into Daniel Ponce de Leon’s featherweight bout with Antonio Escalante this past September. Not so much over the matchup – which was solid on paper, but turned out to a be a rout – but more so what awaited the winner.
Ponce de Leon (40-2, 33KO) was the odds-on favorite to win, and did so in spectacular fashion, scoring a violent third round knockout over the El Paso native.
With that win came the hard sell – justifying a possible rematch with Juan Manuel Lopez.
There’s no immediate push by the sanctioning body that claims Lopez as its champion, for an immediate mandatory title defense.
It’s probably a good thing, since there’s no immediate demand to watch the undefeated Puerto Rican once again face a man he’s already stopped in a single round two years ago.
Promoter Bob Arum has other plans for his rising Puerto Rican star, including a return to the ring next spring, followed by what he hopes (along with everyone else in the industry) to be a highly anticipated showdown with fellow undefeated featherweight titlist Yuriorkis Gamboa.
Past history has shown those in Ponce de Leon’s position to push for a title shot, often clamoring for the reigning champion to be stripped of his belt. Such a move ensures their fighter receives a title shot, although there comes the risk of facing an obscure challenger for far less money in exchange for scooping up a vacant belt.
While fighters remain obsessed with belts these days, it would actually behoove Ponce de Leon to sit on his ranking for as long as possible.
The most lucrative payday out there for him at the moment is a rematch with Lopez. But the truth is that the longer he waits, the easier it will be to sell the public on such a fight becoming a necessity.
The free-swinging Mexican does his part to kill time, as he takes on Sergio Medina (35-3, 20KO) in a 10-round stay busy fight tonight in Veracruz, Mexico.
A victory will extend his current unbeaten streak to seven straight since being humbled by Lopez in front of an HBO-televised audience in June 2008. With each passing bout – and victory – the debacle is put further in the rearview mirror, as Ponce de Leon continues to fight his way back towards legitimate contender status.
Of course, he and the viewing public will be well reminded of it should the day come when a rematch materializes. But the result alone shouldn’t disqualify him from receiving a shot at redemption, not to mention the payday that will come with it.
Israel Vazquez and Oscar Larios faced each other in a December 2005 bout that determined super bantamweight supremacy. Few would have thought to be the case even during their epic war in May 2002, never mind when they first met five years before that.
Vazquez was a 20-year old kid just 12 fights into his career and already with a loss when he was matched up with then hot-prospect Larios, 20-0 at the time. Their career paths quickly changed after Vazquez iced him in a single round.
Enough time passed by to where a rematch – and eventually a rubber match – would take place between them.
Even if Ponce de Leon becomes the next opponent for Lopez, nearly three years will have passed by since they last crossed paths. It’s enough time to suggest that Ponce de Leon merely had a bad night at the office, running into a buzzsaw who was being groomed for stardom from the moment he turned pro.
Allowing Lopez to play out the string and build towards a unification bout with Gamboa will work even greater in Ponce de Leon’s favor. At that point, he will be in line for a sizeable payday against the clear class of the division, even greater than what he would stand to gain by pushing the issue for an immediate title fight.
If it’s Gamboa, you have a fresh story line on which to sell the fight. And even if it’s a return go with Lopez, more than three years will have elapsed.
All he has to do is continue to win and remain patient. In the sport of boxing, the old adage states that winning cures many things.
For Ponce de Leon, a few more wins while biding his time will have cured the pain that once came with trying to sell the scenario of another title foray against the man who so violently snatched that very status from him.
SIDE NOTES:
- Tonight marks Ponce de Leon’s fourth fight of 2010, his most active campaign since 2007, when he made four successful defenses of the alphabet title he would lose to Lopez the following year.
- This will be the third consecutive fight show in which Ponce de Leon and Saul Alvarez appear together. Both scored highlight reel knockouts on the undercard of the September 18 pay-per-view card in Los Angeles in which Shane Mosley and Sergio Mora fought to a draw, and registered wins on the May 1 card topped by Floyd Mayweather Jr’s virtuoso performance against Mosley in the best-selling pay-per-view event of 2010.
- Though on the same card as Alvarez’ HBO Latino debut in a same-day capacity, there are no immediate plans for televised coverage of Ponce de Leon’s 10-round bout with Medina. It’s possible that a taped feed of his bout makes the broadcast in the event of an early ending and need to fill airtime, although that would ultimately become a game time decision.
- Both Ponce de Leon and Medina suffered one-round knockouts against Lopez. Medina’s came two fights later on Lopez’ resume and under far more dubious circumstances. So little effort was put up by the Argentinean that he was accused of throwing the fight, a rumor he even attempted to validate by claiming he received death threats from the Lopez camp prior to the fight, a story even his own team wouldn’t attempt to confirm. When the dust settled, all he was left with was a disgraceful performance and tarnished reputation.
Jake Donovan is the Managing Editor of Boxingscene.com. Follow Jake on Twitter at twitter.com/JakeNDaBox or submit questions/comments to JakeNDaBox@gmail.com.
