Sayson: Gerry 6 - Another title chase
By Homer Sayson
Secondovertime
CHICAGO - Gerry Penalosa, the likable 5-foot-5 south paw from Cebu City aims for one more shot at boxing glory this
March 17 when he fights for the WBO super bantamweight title at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Gerry is a five-time world champion, the toast of Philippine boxing before the Pacquiao era came along. A 17-year pro, he logs a very impressive 51-5-2 slate, with 34 KOs.
But at age 34, the odds are formidably stacked against him.
Gerry's opponent is a 26-year old lion named Daniel Ponce De Leon, a punching machine from Chihuahua, Mexico who has only lost once and has 28 KOs in 30 wins.
Gerry will also move up in weight for this title chase. He will fight at the 122-pounds class, some seven pounds north of his glory days at super flyweight. Gerry has fought at 117 before, but not against a force as destructive as De Leon.
Too big. Too strong. That's what experts collectively say about De Leon, who also enjoys a five-inch reach advantage over Gerry.
At the culmination of his 11 am training session at the Wild Card gym in LA yesterday, I interviewed Gerry through his cellular phone. Among other questions, I asked him what he felt about talks that the De Leon tussle is a mismatch, one that looms to overwhelm him.
"Talk is one thing, but what will happen in the ring remains to be seen," he told me in Cebuano. "I can't worry too much about what people say. I'd rather stay focused on my training, try hard to be well-prepared in one of the biggest fights of my career."
And training hard is exactly what Gerry has been doing since he arrived in LA last Thursday.
He peels himself at around 6 am every morning except Sundays, and under the smiling California sun, he goes jogging, a trek that takes him from his LA flat to Griffith Park and back.
Breakfast follows at sometime around 8:30 am, a meal that is heavy with fruits and cereal. He goes to the Wild Card shortly thereafter, just in time for his 11 am sessions with Freddie Roach.
Lunch is at 1 pm, a meal where anything goes except red meat. Gerry then darts back to his apartment to rest. Dinner is at 6 pm and he loads up on some carbo with soup on the side. At 9 pm, Gerry goes to bed.
To give him an idea of what to expect from the bombs that will explode from De Leon's leather gloves, Gerry has been pitted against bigger, stronger sparring partners. "I have over 50 rounds of sparring under my belt now. A few more and I should be good to go," Gerry says.
My sportswriter's jones tell me that De Leon will most likely get the best of Gerry. I expect the Mexican to bully Penalosa around, plow through his defenses, and annihilate him with a storm of punches.
But Gerry and I have been very good friends for many years. We don't just shake hands when we meet. We hug, we swap stories about our families, we talk about our kids.
Because of this friendship, and my deep sense of loyalty to him, I stubbornly believe that Gerry could still pull a rabbit in his bag of tricks and upset De Leon. It's not the most objective analysis, I know. But it's not dumb, either.
You see, Gerry has never been knocked out before. He is durable as the Energizer Bunny. And he's a fearless counterpuncher, a skill tailor-made against the super aggressive and always advancing De Leon.
"I might be in the twilight of my boxing years," Gerry admits, "but I honestly think I have enough strength left to win another title."
I hope so, too. I really hope so, Gerry.
Gerry Peñalosa to fight for World Title
Originally Posted by krypton2k4
....pero murag pildihon jud si gerry ani na away kay murag wala nay panuhod si gerry...tapos kuntra niya bata pa ka ayo...chamba chamba nalang gyud ning iya basta maka igo si gerry sa ig-anan... 
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