Penalosa to be stripped?

By Lee Bates

Negotiations for a matchup between WBO world bantamweight champion Gerry Penalosa (53-6-2, 36 KOs) and #1 contender Eric Morel (40-2, 21 KOs) have stalled for the moment. According to the Morel Camp, the champion’s team has not been very cooperative in putting the fight together. “We have made several attempts to contact Penalosa’s team without any success,” stated Ivan Rivera. “Penalosa’s team is being very difficult. Morel has earned the right to a title fight. WBO president Francisco ‘Paco’ Valcarcel named Morel the mandatory challenger at the WBO Convention this past November. The next course of action is for us to petition the WBO to step in and strip him of his title if he’s not going to honor his mandatory defense. It really shouldn’t even come down to this as we’ve been very professional about the negotiations and have made a fair offer. We only want Penalosa to do the right thing and honor his mandatory title defense against Morel.”

December 20th, 2008

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