FINAL DUEL AT SUNSET

By Rene Bonsubre, Jr.
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 22 Apr 2009

Penalosa.

WBO Bantamweight king Gerry Penalosa’s career spans two decades. Together with Luisito Espinosa, they were the faces of Philippine pro boxing during the lean pre-Pacquiao years. Then and now, he remains under appreciated.

When he lost the WBC superflyweight title in South Korea to In Jo Cho in 1998, his career went into purgatory. A series of failed attempts to win back the title – In Jo Cho in 2000, Masamori Tokuyama in 2001 and 2002 – made him consider retirement.

After a two year hiatus, he came back. This lead to another failed attempt at a world title two years ago, this time against then WBO super bantamweight world titlist Daniel Ponce DeLeon. Yet, Gerry persisted. His victory against Jhonny Gonzales, courtesy of a paralyzing body blow, not only claimed the WBO Bantamweight title, but was also part of the 4-1 winning margin the Philippines scored against Mexico in their head to head “Boxing World Cup” match-up last in August 2007.

Gerry will turn 37 this August. His love for the game is still there. He has fought 62 professional bouts (54W-6L – 2D, 36 KO’s) and will not be earning Pacman-like millions at this stage of his career. But the chance to make history is a burning motivation.

This coming April 26, Manila time, Penalosa will attempt to win a third world title belt against the undefeated Puerto Rican Juan Manuel Lopez, who holds the WBO super bantamweight title. Lopez (24W – 0L, 22 KO’s) won the title by knocking out Daniel Ponce de Leon in a single round last June 2007. Penalosa will have to fight this one on Lopez’ backyard of Bayamon, Puerto Rico.

Boxing pundits have talked about this fight with a sense of dread. Worst case scenario is that Penalosa will suffer the first knockout loss of his career. Another scenario is that he will have a heart breaking repeat of the Ponce De Leon fight. He will defend beautifully, slip and soak in punches and land clean counters but this will be unappreciated by the judges.

But there is always the third scenario. Like all aging champs before him, he will give one more great performance. We have seen this recently from Bernard Hopkins and Shane Mosley. The encyclopedia of boxing knowledge inside Gerry’s brain might just pull this one off.

Gerry’s brother Dodie was the first Filipino boxer to win two world titles in two different weight classes in 1987. Espinosa followed in 1995. Manny Pacquiao now has more belts than he can hold.

Hollywood has its share of movies about aging heroes going out in a heart-rending last stab at glory or redemption – Sylvester Stallone in Rocky Balboa, Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino and Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler. Real life is more complicated and often tragic. But Gerry Penalosa has the unshakable belief that he can ride into the Puerto Rican sunset with a third belt and bask in another glorious Philippine sunrise.

Boxing on the Net

One day before Penalosa’s battle, the New Cebu Coliseum will host the Thriller in April fight card, headlined by Rolando Magbanua vs. Wanpadejseuk Sithsaithong.

This will be a historic day in Philippine boxing because you can view a fight live at the Cebu Coliseum for free via www.pinoyboxingtv.com and/or www.philboxingtv.com.
Preferred brower is Internet explorer.

1. type the above address
2. on the warning or info bar that appears above the page (below the header), right click and install or run active X.
3. wait for a few seconds , a Umedia installer will pop out.
4. just click ok or install
5. click the refresh button near the address bar (or F5 on the keyboard)
6. done

PENALOSA MEDIA WORK OUT IN PUERTO RICO

By Dong Secuya
PhilBoxing.com
Wed, 22 Apr 2009

GUAYNABO, Puerto Rico — Gerry Penalosa will be more than just a name to the many Puerto Ricans whose excitement and expectation are building up for this Saturday’s fight with young boricua boxing sensation Juan Manuel Lopez as Penalosa worked out in front of the Puerto Rican media this afternoon at the well-known Wilfredo Gomez gym here.

Representatives of the local radio and TV stations as well as the four newspapers in the island, followed the unsassuming Penalosa do a 1-hour workout as he shadow-boxed, did the mitts and stretching exercises with his brothers/trainers Jonathan and Carl Penalosa.

The Puerto Rican media treat Saturday’s world championship event as one of the major boxing events in the island “maybe not as huge as a Tito Trinidad fight but comparable to a Miguel Cotto fight,” according to a journalist from Primera Hora newspaper. Trinidad is the highly popular Puerto Rican welterweight and middleweight world champion and Cotto, from Caguas, is on the verge of superstardom before he was stopped by the Mexican Antonio Margarito in their welterweight title bout last year for his lone defeat.

Juan Manuel Lopez, 25, who hails from Bayamon where the fight will be held at the Coliseo Ruben Rodriguez on Saturday, has an undefeated record of 24 wins with 22 knockouts with the last three all ending in the very first round sending murmurs in he boxing world that a new boxing star has risen from the small U.S. territory in the Carrebean.

But the veteran Filipino ring strategist Penalosa (54-6-0 36KOs), who is now in the twilight of his career at age 36 but has never been knocked down by anyone, calmly told the Puerto Rican press in an interview after the workout that “I love to fight JuanMa and I will surprise him. Our team has a plan, A, B and C. Whatever he brings to he table, we are ready for him.”

Notes… The Wilfredo Gomez gym is the biggest gym in Puerto Rico and is home to six world champions including Ivan Calderon, Hector Camacho and the gym’s namesake. oscar de la Hoya trained here during his fight with Floyd Mayweather, Jr. in May, 2007 and where Filipino prospects Rey ‘Boom Boom’ Bautista and AJ ‘Bazooka’ Banal also trained with De La Hoya during that time.

Top photo: Gerry Penalosa with brother/trainer Jonathan Penalosa at the Wilfredo Gomez gym in Puerto Rico during today’s media workout.

Penalosa being interviewed by the Puerto Rican press after today’s media workout at the Wilfredo Gomez gym in Guaybano, Puerto Rico.

VALERO – 134.5 LBS, PITALUA – 135 LBS

PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 04 Apr 2009

Austin,Texas — (L-R) Powerful, undefeated Edwin Valero, Top Rank’s explosive knockout artist (24-0, 24 KOs) from Venezuela and Antonio Pitalua,Colombia weigh in (Valero 134.5 lb , Pitalua 135 lb) for their upcoming main event championship fight for the vacant WBC World Lightweight title on Golden Boy Promotions “Lightweight Lightning” Pay Per View,Saturday April 4 at the Frank Erwin Center in Austin,Texas. — Photo Credit : Chris Farina – Top Rank copyright 2009.

RP VS AUSTRALIA at THE PBA

Let us all watch the exhibtion game tonight between our own RP Team against the visiting team which is the Australian Team. It will be a tough game for the RP team for they will face with a taller and experience opponent.

The Nationals are raring to come out and go up against the tall Australian team in their 7:30 p.m. contest to find out how far they have gone since they started working out together late last year.

They’re playing their first tune-up game with two months to go before plunging into action in the SEABA championship in Medan, Indonesia which serves as the qualifier among Southeast Asian teams for the Fiba-Asia Championship set in August in China.

Cobras overcome odds

POSITIVE thinking allowed the Hotel Fortuna-Southwestern University (SWU) Cobras to make the disadvantages work for them.

Hotel Fortuna-SWU wiped out the competition as they came to Game 4 of the best-of-five finals series prepared to clobber the Enervon C-University of Cebu (UC) Webmasters, 88-71, to clinch the 2009 Cebu Schools Athletic Foundation Inc.-Partners Cup title yesterday at the Cebu Coliseum.

The Webmasters were like deer caught by headlights as they stood frozen, clueless and defenseless as the Cobras bulldozed them right at the opening period up until the final buzzer.

The odds were actually against the Cobras coming into the game as they lost two important players, Eleazar Armecin and Clifford Maguate, due to injuries, but SWU head coach Dodie Miego knew just the thing to perk up his squad.

“I told them there are still 13 of them. We can still do a lot to do damage on UC and win the title,” he said. “If I told them that we might have a hard time because we lost two players, it would only create negativity and they wouldn’t have had that drive to win today,” added Miego.

Outplaying

Miego was also straightforward in saying that they obliterated the opponent simply because they outplayed UC.

“The breaks of the game were on our favor. We outplayed them. That is the best explanation for this,” said Miego.

SWU made sure that Game 4 was a done job as they struck head on early in the game, building up a mammoth 20-point lead, 28-8, in the first period alone.

The Webmasters did not even give the slightest effort to undo this as they just watched helplessly as their 6’7” center June Mar Fajardo did all the dirty work for them.

UC showed hints of life in the second period when, lagging by 17 points, they rallied with a 12-0 run behind the efforts of their second stringers Borgy Luceno and Ralph Ramos to cut the lead down to five, 36-41.

UC’s scorching run, however, was put to a screeching halt by Alfred Belande, Melvin Divinagracia and Richard Gianchand, who scored consecutive baskets to take the lead back to double digits, 47-36, before the first period ended.

With UC’s main protagonists, Moncrief Rogado, Edward Pao, Jansen Abella and Kelvin Juliane, not contributing to the team, the Cobras maintained a safe distance and ended the penultimate period with a 10-point advantage, 59-49.

‘Savior’

UC’s lethal perimeter shooters Abella and Rogado once more stepped up late in the fourth period and dropped a 10-0 bomb, but as expected, the scorching run was once more arrested by Alfred “The Savior” Belande to ultimately lose all chance to make a comeback.

“Swerte ra gyud ko ato nga duwa (I was just lucky in that game) and I was able to adjust to the defense. I just followed the coach’s instruction to make a situation to divert Fajardo’s attention so that I can challenge him down the goal,” said Belande, who had successfully scored by driving through the Fajardo wall.

Both Belande and Fajardo finished with 25 points for their respective teams. Eric Zanoria and Eluid Poligrates scored 15 and 12 points respectively, while Ritchi Jalandoni added 10. (MCB)

Draws secure Wesley 2nd straight title

MANILA, Philippines – GM Wesley So went for draws against GM-candidates Julio Catalino Sadorra and Richard Bitoon then halved the point with fellow GM Joey Antonio to clinch the Phoenix Petroleum-Dapitan City “Battle of GMs” chess championship for the second straight year at the Dapitan City Resort Hotel in Dapitan City, Zamboanga del Norte.

So and Antonio split the point after 31 moves of a Sicilian yesterday in their sixth round match that was ordered replayed last week as the 15-year-old whiz captured the crown worth P200,000 with a 16-point total for a three-point lead over Antonio with one round left in the tournament.

The high school student from St. Francis-Cavite halved the point with Sadorra in 36 moves of the French and needed only 30 moves to draw with Bitoon in their Sicilian Pelican encounter.

Antonio’s draw with So gave him a 13-point aggregate for solo second while Torre, who ruled the third President Arroyo Cup late last year, scored back-to-back victories for third with 12 points.

Torre outduelled fellow GM Bong Villamayor in 39 moves of the London Opening in the ninth round then outclassed GM John Paul Gomez in 46 moves of the Bogo-Indian in the 10th.

Antonio trounced Gomez in 41 moves of the Benoni but drew with GM Mark Paragua in 31 moves of the Sicilian. GM Darwin Laylo drew with IM Rolando Nolte in 30 moves of the Center Counter and subdued GM Jayson Gonzales in 33 moves of the Slav to climb to solo fourth place with 11.5 points.

Laylo drew with IM Rolando Nolte in 30 moves of the Center Counter and subdued GM Jayson Gonzales in 33 moves of the Slav to climb to solo fourth place with 11.5 points.

Sadorra drew his matches against So and IM Ronald Dableo to join Gomez at 11 points.

Paragua whipped IM Ronald Dableo in 32 moves of the Queen’s Gambit Accepted to join Bitoon with 10 points.

In the women’s division, WFM Shercila Cua and WIM Beverly Mendoza hurdled their respective ninth-round opponents and drew against each other in the following round to keep their 1-2 positions with 15 and 14.5 points, respectively.

Cua bested Rida Young in 32 moves of the King’s Indian while Mendoza outlasted Kimberly Cunanan in 78 moves of the Dutch.

Cua and Mendoza then halved the point in 36 moves of the French.

Cua’s younger sister, Sherily, halved the point with Christy Lamiel Bernales (46 moves, Queen’s Indian) and Daisy Rivera (43, Budapest) to remain in third place with 13 points.

Roland Dantes

I admit I am not familiar to Roland Dantes, but as I read the column of one of my sports writer idol Bill Velasco today in his column The Game of My Life in Philstar.com. Roland Dantes as describe by Bill Velasco in his column as world class body builder, martial artist,international actor and patriot.

Roland Dantes for the benefit who do not know helped found Philippine Council of Kali, Escrima and Arnis masters (PCKEAM).

“Roland Dantes is a big loss to the rich culture of Philippine Martial Arts. Hopefully those concerned will notice and value Pinoy culture, which is slowly vanishing the way Mr. Dantes valued it. There aren’t enough programs to raise the level, especially among the young Filipinos.” As what one blogger describe about this guy.

Condolence to his family and friends, let’s us all continue what Mr. Dantes do to Philippine Martial Arts especially in Arnis.

BAG-ONG KIHA NI KOBE UG SA IYANG ASAWA

Santa Ana California – Nag atubang na sad ug bag-ong kontrobersya ang sikat nga player sa Los Angeles Lakers nga si Kobe Bryant. Ang iyang kanhi helper sa balay nga si Maria Jimenez ming kiha nya ug  “harassed and humiliated,” denied health insurance and forced to quit because of “intolerable” working conditions.

Dili na bag-o alang kang Kobe ang mga kiha, gani gipa saka-an naman gani na siya ug kasong rape kani adto. Pero murag ang kihante ming atras maung wala mo lambo ang kaso.

Sayang kung mapadayon ning kasoha kay klarong mabahin jud ang hunahuna sa superstar sa LA Lakers. Ug nindot ra ba jud kaayu ug standing records sa LA sa pagkakaron.

Pero angay lang jud nga tubagon na sad ni Kobe Bryant aron malimpyo iyang pangalan.

Pastilan nimu Kobe!

PACQUIAO’S MOVE

Question: Ano ba talaga si Manny Pacquiao (a.k.a. Money Pakyaw), Kapamilya o Kapuso?

Answer: Kapera!

Manny Pacquiao in his latest controversy should examine very well his move before making decsions. In dealing with his business he should be very cautious and intellegent enough to act and decide.

Look what had happened last week instead of giving time to evaluate every offer he  already jump to a conclusion. But I will give Pacquiao a second chance I know next time he will improve and make adjustments of what should be done.

What should Pacquiao focus is his training for his upcoming fight on May 2, 2009 for I think Ricky Hatton is seriously training in his hometown.

Good Luck Pacquiao

Medellin Fiesta Triathlon

Mayor Ricky Ramirez and the Municipality of Medellin with the assistance of Sugbu Triathlon present the Medellin Fiesta Triathlon! This will be held on April 26, 2009 (Sunday), Medellin, Cebu. The course is a 500m Swim – 20km Bike – 4km Run.

Categories:
- Mens open
- Womens open
- 29 below, male
- 30-39, male
- 40 above, male
- Mountain Bike

More details to come soon.