Peñalosa Jr., Sanchez light up bleak day for Philippine boxing
The unbeaten Cebuano super bantamweight contender Dodie Boy “Dugong Kampeon” Peñalosa, Jr. and Ernie Sanchez of General Santos City provided some spark to a rather gloomy day for Philippines boxing following the heartbreaking defeat of Manny Pacquiao and two other Filipino fighters yesterday in Las Vegas.
The 20- year- old Peñalosa Jr. scored a sensational second round stoppage of Mexican Jesus Lule-Raya of Fort Myers, Florida.
Peñalosa started strong with fast combinations against the 28-year-old Raya in the initial round. Raya blocked most of those shots as the young Filipino boxer used both hand and foot speed to move around his foe. Jr. in the ropes in the early goings of round two, but the Filipino returned fire with a vicious body and head combo.
Peñalosa Jr. unleashed a left to Raya's body which set up a vicious right hook upstairs that immediately sent the Mexican to the floor. Referee Jay Nady stopped the fight after seeing the helpless Raya in the canvass.
The official time was 1:11 of the secound round as Peñalosa cruised to his 10th straight knockout win.
Sanchez, on the other hand, opened the slambang event at the MGM Grand Arena with a convincing unanimous decision victory over American Coy Evans of Philadelphia in an eightrounder match.
Sanchez knocked down Evans in round three with a hard right cross that pushed back his counterpart across the ring. Evans recovered but Sanchez pummeled him with shots to the body and head after the knockdown but Evans survived the round.
Sanchez was hurt in the fifth by an uppercut and held on to Evans to prevent further damage. He replied with good combination to the head and finished the round with a nice right straight.
Sanchez finished the fight smart by landing combos on Evans and then moving away to avoid being countered. The fighter from GenSan got the nod of all three judges with the scores of 78-73 (twice) and 77-74.--