Rafa shelves date with Penalosa.

The grapevine has it that Rafael Marquez has changed his mind about facing Filipino Gerry Penalosa and has instead signed on to fight Veeraphol Sahaprom, a Thai former WBC Bantam champ in November at a site to be named later. At close to 38 years old (birthday-November 16) Sahaprom is about 4 years older than Penalosa but has a better record-- Penalosa: 50-5-2 (33 KOs), Sahaprom: 53-3-2 (38 KOs). The Thai also reigned a lot longer: racking up 15 successful title defenses in some 6 years before bowing to Hozumi Hasegawa. If the fight is going to be held in the US, it shall be Sahaprom's first appearance in America, be it North, Central or South. His handful of previous fights outside Thailand were in Japan and France. Why did Rafa pick Sahaprom instead of Penalosa? Age? Better record and thus the fight can be more marketable? Style is better suited to his? Height (Sahaprom is only 5'3 while both Rafa and Penalosa are 5'5)? Your thoughts... Edit: As a result of Rafa's decision, Penalosa is now being slated to fight an opponent still to be named in late October at El Paso, TX.