DAVE Peñalosa suffered his first career setback after losing to South African Lerato Dlamini in their World Boxing Council (WBC) Silver featherweight title fight by a lopsided unanimous decision on July 12 at the King Abdullah Sports City in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.
Dlamini outclassed the 28-year-old Dave and got the nod of all three judges with scores of 118-108, 117-109 and 117-109.
“We are back to the drawing board,” Dave’s uncle and promoter, Gerry Peñalosa, told SunStar Cebu.
This fight was supposedly Dave’s breakout fight and an interim world title fight was planned for him. But that plan vanished into thin air after his loss.
“We still have to talk about what our plan will be,” said Gerry, a two-division world champion during his days as a boxer.
Dave, rated No. 10 in the World Boxing Organization (WBO), suffered his first career loss and dropped to 15-1 with 11 knockouts, while Dlamini continues to impress and improved to 13-1 with six knockouts.
Gerry promised to do his best to make Dave, the son of two-division world titleholder Dodie Boy Peñalosa, a world champion because of the latter’s dedication to his craft. However, it still depends on how Dave bounces back in this latest setback if he has what it takes to indeed be a world champion. (EKA)
