Thursday, October 19, 2006 Jaca out, Gerry Peñalosa in By Rommel C. Manlosa Sun.Star Staff Reporter
THE Juan Manuel Marquez vs. Jimrex Jaca WBO Interim Featherweight championship is officially out of the Golden Boy Promotions Oct. 21 (Oct. 22 RP time) card.
But Filipino boxing fans won’t miss a chance to see a Filipino fighting in the card as former WBC Super-flyweight champion Gerry Peñalosa will now appear on one of the four fights slated by HBO on pay-per-view.
Peñalosa (50-5-2, 33KOs), who has been in training at the Wild Card Gym in Hollywood since August, will fight former WBO bantamweight champion Mauricio Martinez of Colon, Panama for 10 rounds.
And since the Marquez-Jaca fight is cancelled, WBO Super-Bantamweight champion Daniel Ponce De Leon’s title defense against Al Seeger will now headline the event at the Don Haskins Center in El Paso, Texas.
The WBO NABO Super bantamweight championship between Antonio Escalante against Omar Adorno and Juan Lazcano against Manuel Garcia complete the four bouts on PPV.
The 31-year-old Martinez, who holds a 31-6-1 record with 21 Kos, is the current WBO No.1 bantamweight contender and the current WBO Latino and WBA Fedecentro champion.
He won the WBO title when he beat Lester Fuentes by fifth round TKO in September 2000 and made one successful title defense before losing to Cruz Carbajal in March 2002.
Reign
His reign as the WBO Lation champion started in November 2004, when he won by technical Decision over Gerardo Espinosa by technical decision. Espinosa is the same boxer who knocked down ALA Boy Rey “Boom-Boom” Bautista before the Boholano won by unanimous decision in December 2005.
Meanwhile, Golden Boy Promotions vice president Eric Gomez pointed the blame at the US Embassy in Manila for the cancellation of the Marquez-Jaca fight.
“(Jaca) has been there three times. He showed up at the American embassy for a special stamp three times and they turned him away. Supposedly, they are backed up and there’s a big waiting list. The lawyer we used to help us with visas has been doing this for a long time and he said the last time he had a problem like this was over 10 years ago. We faxed letters to the embassy from Oscar (De La Hoya) but it didn’t help,” Gomez was quoted by ESPN.com
As for Marquez, GBP has scheduled his debut with the promotional outfit on Nov. 25 in the HBO Boxing After Dark event, while Jaca is still facing uncertainty.
