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.