By Ronnie Nathanielsz
Trainer Freddie Roach who at one time handled former WBC super flyweight champion Gerry Penalosa when he dropped a controversial decision to WBC champion Masamori Tokuyama in Japan said yesterday that Penalosa will have "a very, very tough fight" if a planned IBF bantamweight championship bout against Rafael Marquez takes place on the undercard of the Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez rematch scheduled for February 26 in Las Vegas.
Internationally known promoter Murad Muhammad said he would work to try and get the 32 year old Penalosa a title shot against the 29 year old younger brother of the featherweight champion after Penalosa said he wanted to fight Rafael Marquez "because his aggressive, attacking style is a favorite of mine and I can counter-punch effectively and hopefully win another world title." Roach conceded that "technically it will be a great fight but it will be a hard fight for both boys." He described Marquez as "a tough guy" and said that although "Marquez's style suits Penalosa's counter-punching ability the thing is Rafael (Marquez) is a better puncher than his brother Juan (Manuel Marquez) and does have knockout power."
Roach said while Penalosa has had two comeback fights but his opponents were "not quality fighters and coming back you don't want to jump in there too soon. I would probably like to see Gerry take another warm-up fight just to get his feet wet a little more and against better competition.." Roach disclosed that Penalosa "asked me to help him and I will because he is such a good kid and a good friend and hopefully he'll be a world champion soon because I think that is why he made his comeback. He wants to win the world title."
Roach promised that he would "watch him closely in the gym and make sure that he has the desire because this can be a really hard fight and he'll be prepared if he comes to the Wild Card and trains." Roach said "it will be great to have Pacquiao and Penalosa against the Marquez brothers. HBO will be elated over that. It will be huge and the Philippines will show up." Penalosa who won the vacant WBF super flyweight title via a seventh round knockout over Bangsaen Sithpraprom last November 27 has a record of 48-5-2 with 33 knockouts while Marquez has a record of 33-3 with 30 knockouts. However, all Marquez defeats were by KO with the last being a second round KO by Genaro Garcia on November 12, 2000.
