Gerry’s Big Break

Former WBC Superflyweight Champion Gerry Penalosa gets a chance to challange for the IBF Bantamweight title againts one of the best pound for pound champion in the world today, Rafael Marquez.

For Gerry, this would be his career defining fight. A win againts Rafael Marquez would surely secure his legacy as one of the best boxers the Philippines had ever produced. But that won't be an easy task. At 34, he doesnt have the speed and quickness that he used to have. But still posses the technical abilities which has been his greatest asset since he started his stellar career.

In his last fight againts Tomas Rojas serving as the undercard of the Pacquiao-Larios main event, I was very impressed with the way he fought againts Rojas. Fighting againts an opponent which was at least 4 inches taller and had a sizeable reach advantage, Penalosa simply outboxed the much taller Rojas. Just to give you an idea of how good is his technical abilities, there was even a couple of rounds wherein Penalosa was out jabbing Rojas.

Looking at Gerry's fight record, (50-5-2 33kos) all five of his losses were by descision with 4 of the 5 were all disputed Split descisions.

Gerry had been waiting for this fight to happen. Penalosa promised to kick ass come fight night. Peñalosa said he plans to leave for Los Angeles "at least 12 weeks before the fight" to train under the celebrated Freddie Roach at his Wild Card Gym.

Let’s Get It On

     
LAS VEGAS, NV - It's a done deal. Manny "Pacman" Pacquiao and Erik "El Terrible" Morales will face each other on a rubber match this coming November 18.

Manny Pacquiao got what he wanted from Top Rank Promotions’ head Bob Arum and yesterday signed a contract, stipulating a $3 million guaranteed purse, to fight Erik Morales in a 12-round rubber match at the Thomas and Mack Center.

Arum had initially offered Pacquiao a $2.5 million guaranteed purse.

A major clause in the contract stipulates a $1 million payoff for Pacquiao in case Morales weighs in at 132 pounds or two over the limit. The penalty is $500,000 if Morales tips the scales at 131. If Morales weighs over 132, Pacquiao takes home $1 million and has the option to accept or decline the fight.

"If Erik fails to make 130 pounds, he will have to pay Manny half a million dollars for every pound that he is over the contracted weight," said Finkel, quoted by the boxing website fightnews.com. "In the press conference for their last fight, Erik said the weight was killing him and he would never fight at 130 again. So we are doing this now so it won’t be an issue later. We are basing it upon what happened in the third fight between (Jose Luis) Castillo and (Diego) Corrales."

Last June, Castillo failed to make the 135-pound limit and Corrales exercised his right to decline the fight. In their second meeting, Castillo also went over the limit but Corrales agreed to fight and was knocked out.

"Erik has a job to do," said Finkel. "Manny has to make the weight, too. It may be easier for him but he still has to make it. Manny has the same penalty if he doesn’t make the weight either."

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