Gerry Penalosa, how good was he?

[Chups]

lolz!!! classic discussion! where is Jose Rizal?

MABs............

[JOM'S]

Gerry was good enough to challenge 122 pound champion Daniel Ponce De Leon today ...

you guys check the fight and then tell me how good was he ...

for an old ex-lower weight class champion, against a young heavy handed heavier current champion ...

[flipside]

i like his brother more because he had polio. what an underdog.

[eazy_mas]

he is a southpaw techincial inside fast pacing couterpuncher.

similar to JMM style abit

[JOM'S]

i like his brother more because he had polio. what an underdog.

to tell you frankly its just lately i realize why Gerry is ranked higher than his older brother "Doddie Boy" on the Philippine All Time List of fighters...

[JOM'S]

so any body have seen the fight last night between ponce de leon and gerry??

so how you guys rate the old man??

although he loss via UD, I am sure you'll see something good from him during that fight...

[Jim_Davis]

Penalosa made that fight. I was impressed by him. Hope to see more of his fights in the future.

[James78]

He was great, he was like a zen master or something, class act.

[JOM'S]

Golden Boy Launches a �Fearless?Protest for Penalosa
By Brett Conway (April 5, 2007)
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The stink from the scoring of the Gerry Penalosa-Daniel Ponce de Leon WBO super bantamweight championship match did not go away. Its aroma was discussed in newspapers and in boxing web forums. In hopes of changing the air, Golden Boy Promotions has launched an official protest with the WBO.

But first let�s recap. On March 17th, on the undercard of the Marco Antonio Barrera-Juan Manuel Marquez fight, Daniel Ponce de Leon put his WBO super bantamweight title on the line to face �Fearless?Gerry Penalosa. For 26-year-old Ponce de Leon, the highly touted slugger with an awkward technique, this fight was a mere bump to greater things. For Penalosa, the 34-year-old Filipino fighter, this was another shot at a title, maybe his last. He had more to lose from a loss than Ponce de Leon.

Despite putting on a display of the sweet science that probably left the spirits of Charley Burley, Willie Pep, and Archie Moore in glee and despite having Ponce de Leon retreating for the last three rounds, Penalosa was handed a unanimous decision loss and was given credit of winning only 2 of the 36 rounds on the scorecards. Since then, many of the boxing media have chimed in saying Penalosa was robbed.

MaxBoxing writers are among those who chimed in. Steve Kim scored it 116-112, Doug Fischer scored it 116-112, and Armando Alvarez scored it 116-112, all for Gerry Penalosa -- and all in line with my score of 115-113 Penalosa. Other writers, though, scored it differently. To Eric Raskin I went askin? and he told me he had it 115-113 for Ponce de Leon. That�s a score I didn�t have but it�s a reasonable one, one that Doug Fischer, too, said he could agree with given late swing rounds.

In the fight, Ponce de Leon and Penalosa had contrasting styles, which often leads to these kinds of controversial scores where there�s a round or two too close to call. But scores of 119-109 or 120-108 just make me wonder whether the judges know that defense and effective, let me say it louder, EFFECTIVE aggression counts for something. Ponce de Leon was aggressive but ineffective; Penalosa was clearly more effective on offense and defense. Doug Fischer supplied me with some PunchStats. Of the 1400 punches thrown by Ponce de Leon only 19% landed and only 8% of his jabs. On the other hand, almost 40% of Penalosa�s power shots landed. �Nuff said.

Max Boxing�s traveling man, Lee Groves, had an entirely different picture of the fight, but closer than any of the judges. He had it 118-110 for Ponce de Leon and sticks by it, arguing that Ponce de Leon�s volume of punches trumps Penalosa�s effective counter-punching. I can understand an argument that says Ponce de Leon won because he threw so many punches, but I can�t agree with it because it doesn�t account for the ebb and flow of the fight ?more on that below. PunchStats give us a guide as to what happened in a fight, but they never tell the whole story. (By the way, you can read more about Lee Grove�s take on the fight at .)

So among the MaxBoxing staff, four had it for Penalosa and two had it for Ponce de Leon. Three had a clear win for Penalosa, one had it close for Penalosa, one had it close for Ponce de Leon, and one had Ponce de Leon by a wide margin. In terms of total rounds, it�s 38 rounds for Penalosa and 34 rounds for Ponce de Leon, giving a slight edge to Penalosa. This is a much closer fight than the 34 of 36 scored for Ponce de Leon on the cards.

And that�s the point. Styles make fights. In the Penalosa-Ponce de Leon fight, the edge in counterpunching went to Penalosa and the edge in sheer volume of punches went to Ponce de Leon. Since boxing is not just about throwing punches, Penalosa�s counter punching must be taken into consideration and earn the Filipino fighter some rounds. Each fighter�s style made for a close fight, an interesting fight, an entertaining fight -- one that should be fought again in the interest of entertainment and justice both.

But it�s been over half-a-month since the fight. Who will remember it in a couple more weeks? Keeping attention on the scoring in this one has been difficult because of the robbery of Steve Forbes on the same card as Penalosa-Ponce de Leon and because the boxing world moves on to newer and bigger fights. But still some are keeping up the protest.

One who wants the Penalosa case to remain open is Billy Keane who, along with Freddie Roach, is the co-manager of Gerry Penalosa.

�It used to be that in Las Vegas, they loved the boxer but that doesn�t seem to be the case anymore,?Keane told Max Boxing. �To me that had to be one of the most interesting or bizarre decisions I�ve seen in a long time because for that fight for one judge not to give Gerry one round, I mean that�s very baffling to me how you could look at a fight like that and say he didn�t win a round. I mean those last four rounds when Gerry had Ponce de Leon running and doing nothing. And Gerry was stalking him and being aggressive and throwing power shots. I don�t know how you can see that and not give Gerry credit. I don�t really get it.?br />
Like many, Keane believes Penalosa didn�t just beat down Ponce de Leon and make him run for the last few rounds. Penalosa put on the kind of display that tickles the part of the brain that makes boxing folk think, �that fighter�s as sweet as Sugar.?br />
But the scoring knocked most people for a loop. If you were surprised, imagine how you would feel if you manged the fighter.

�We, like most, were completely shocked by the score cards. I think the fight was very close and had Gerry winning by one round. Certainly one could make an argument for a close verdict the other way. But 34 of 36 seems beyond comprehension.?br />
Even though he had more to lose by fighting Ponce de Leon and even though he was a 21-1 underdog coming in, Penalosa and his handlers believed he could win this fight.

�There was no doubt in my or Freddie Roach�s mind that he could beat Ponce de Leon. He�s just too superior a boxer. First of all, Ponce de Leon doesn�t know how to box. It�s not like he�s a boxer-puncher. It�s not something he does. Gerry on the other hand is a boxer. He can catch the guy coming in with right hooks. Gerry wanted to show his versatility. He wanted to show he could box.?br />
And show he could box he did. The Penalosa-Ponce de Leon fight, to my eye, had three acts: the first round, the second through the ninth, and the tenth to the twelfth. In the last two acts, Ponce de Leon�s skills ebbed while Penalosa�s flowed. In the first round, things seemed to be going Ponce de Leon�s way. He ****** hooks to the head and especially to the body while Penalosa seemed hesistant. By the second round it was clear that Penalosa had been studying his opponent in that round, figuring him out. From the second to the ninth round, he applied what he learned. He waited for Ponce de Leon to throw and when he did, he countered with sharp right hooks and straight lefts. Many of these shots staggered Ponce de Leon or knocked him off balance, and their consistency and accumulation, despite Ponce de Leon�s inneffective activity, should�ve been enough to give Penalosa most of those rounds.

In the tenth round, Ponce de Leon changed tactics, maybe for the first time in his career. Instead of coming forward, he started to back pedal and move side to side, throwing out a jab all the while. The jab though wasn�t effective; it was more of a limp noodle. This was not a fighter adjusting to negative circumstances in a fight. It looked more like a fighter in full survival mode. Penalosa continually stalked his opponent.

Billy Keane shares this interpretation of the fight. �We thought it would take three or four rounds for Gerry to figure out Ponce de Leon. Gerry really adjusted his style from the second round on. After the first round, Gerry said he was not impressed with his power. He said he did not hit that hard. He realized that after the first round he could start taking it to him and apply a little pressure.?br />
When the scores were read ?120-108 from Dave Moretti and 119-109 from Chuck Giampa and Nelson Vazquez ?some were shocked, some were outraged, and many in the Las Vegas audience who entered the Mandalay Bay not just to see the main event but also to cheer on Ponce de Leon booed the decision. Even the British broadcaster of this fight, Sky Sports, which had Ponce de Leon winning, called the scores �a piece of nonsense.?Clearly the judges saw something different from most fight fans.

�The cards had such discrepancies when they were announced I thought, �I didn�t think Gerry won that big,�� Keane said. �But then I thought, �well, they just screwed Steve Forbes.?You can make an argument that the fight was close. Even if you want to make an argument that Ponce de Leon won a close fight, I�ll hear you out. But on one judge�s card, Gerry was not given any rounds. Guys in the ring, even Bernard Hopkins, were saying, �your guy won; your guy won.��

With the scores so wide in a very competitive fight, I wonder whether Penalosa could have adjusted his style to make his skills seen more clearly to the judges who couldn�t see what he was doing.

[JOM'S]

“If the score cards were close I would have said you had to throw more punches. But given the scorecards being so wide, I couldn’t say Gerry could’ve done anything different. What could he have done besides knock him out?” Keane said. “But Gerry does need to throw more punches if we ever get that rematch. We won’t have to do a lot of things different. One thing I like about Gerry is that he is such an intelligent fighter. He can fight so much better and make so much more adjustments than Ponce de Leon who can only fight one way. In the rematch, Ponce de Leon will fight the exact same way he did last time.”

At Penalosa’s age, there is only a small window for making money. Like many good fighters fighting out of Asia, he hasn’t the chance to make the big money as Manny Pacquiao has. Just ask WBC featherweight champion In Jin Chi how hard it is to cash in. He lost a chance to make easy money without risking his title against super featherweight champion Pacquiao and now has to defend his title against dangerous Oscar Larios in May. It’s doubly tough when you lose out not only in the pocket but also on the score cards as Penalosa did against Ponce de Leon. Maybe being an Asian fighter hurt Penalosa’s chances in the eyes of the judges.

“I absolutely think that’s part of it,” Keane said. “Like when Gerry comes to the ring, he’s booed. A lot of fans were looking at him as a lamb being led to slaughter. And Ponce comes out there, the big exciting knockout artist. But Gerry slowly and methodically dismantles him. And someone told me, and I think this was true for many people who were at the fight, that Ponce de Leon was going to knock him out in one round. After the first round, he was like ‘he’ll get him in the next.’ And then ‘the next round.’ Then ‘the next round.’ Then around the sixth or seventh round, he is like ‘hey, Penalosa might be winning this fight.’ It kind of snuck up on him, seeing what Gerry was doing. People were just waiting for Ponce de Leon to blow him out and maybe that’s what the judges were thinking. He was just an opponent, so they were waiting for him to get knocked out. They didn’t even notice what was happening. ‘Is this big strong guy going to knock him out? Wow! He’s throwing a lot of punches.’ They’re not really seeing that the punches aren’t landing. And the ones that are landing aren’t really affecting him. And yeah, those body shots look really hard but they are not slowing Gerry down.”

If it is up to Golden Boy Promotions, they won’t allow Penalosa to be slowed down either. Richard Schaefer, CEO of Golden Boy Promotions, has filed a protest with the WBO, putting the Penalosa-Ponce de Leon match under investigation. You can say what you want about the so-called “Cold War” between Golden Boy and Bob Arum’s Top Rank for stopping fights between Manny Pacquiao and Juan Manuel Marquez, but Golden Boy is looking out for its fighters.

“For Golden Boy to give Gerry a shot at the title in their second fight with them, well, we’re really pleased with them. Now, hopefully the protest will do something and something will be yielded. It just goes to show how Richard is and how Golden Boy is. They have both Ponce de Leon and Penalosa under contract, but, you know, right is right and Richard Schaefer is a very fair and honorable man with a high level of integrity which is really, really rare in this sport. And when something isn’t right, they will fight for what’s right.”

Even though there is no guarantee that the protest will give Penalosa a rematch, it is clear that with his defense and counterpunching he still has some fights left in him. He could be an attractive opponent for many fighters in the lower weights.

“Gerry would love to fight at 115. He would fight Johnny Gonzalez at 118. Gerry is a real warrior. He will fight anywhere from 115 to 122. The thing is he is such a good boxer that Ponce de Leon threw 1500 punches or whatever it was he threw but very, very few of them landed. People say he scored all those shots, but maybe they should’ve scored Gerry’s defense. He doesn’t take a lot of shots, so for his age he is in very good condition. I think he can fight anyone out there between 115 to 122 pounds. The number one match for him though is a rematch with Ponce de Leon. That’s what Gerry wants. After that, he would like to fight [WBO super flyweight champion] Fernando Montiel. And after that maybe [WBO bantamweight champion] Johnny Gonzalez or [WBC super bantamweight champion] Rafael Marquez.”

But for now it’s about the protest, one that doesn’t just have to do with Penalosa though. Keane hopes it will help rid boxing of unfair decisions.

“Beyond Gerry and Ponce, it has to do with giving fair decisions and cleaning the sport up. And if Gerry won the fight the other way, I think Richard would still be protesting. Running boxing with a high level of integrity means making things fair and right.”

To help make things fair and right, the WBO should read its regulations and heed its section on return fights. It says, “if a Championship contest results in a highly controversial decision, the World Championship Committee may, in its discretion, recommend a direct return fight.”

Billy Keane agrees. “It’s good that the WBO is willing to take on the protest. Obviously, they’re not going to overturn the decision. But hopefully they’ll look at it and be reasonable and look at the ringside reporters and talk to the people that were there and say Gerry deserves a rematch. And it should be Ponce de Leon’s next fight.”.