Ponce De Leon-Estrella moved again

By Felipe Leon

After switching venues like boxing’s version of musical chairs, the Daniel Ponce de Leon vs. Omar Estrella WBC USNBC featherweight title tilt finally found a home in the seaside port of Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico on Saturday, January 21st. The Golden Boy Promotions and Box Latino event will be held at the “Bodega del Boxeo”, a venue created specifically to hold the multi-bout fight card. The main event will be televised live in Mexico by mega channel Televisa as part of their Saturday night boxing series “Sabados de Corona.”

Originally the contest was set for Mexico City and then Tijuana.

In a classic brawler versus boxer match up, hard hitting Ponce de Leon (44-1, 34KOs) of Ciudad Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua, by way of Huntington Park, CA, looks to get back in the win column after suffering two consecutive losses. The former WBO super bantamweight champ dropped a close controversial unanimous decision early last year to current WBO 130 lbs. champion Adrien Broner and then a decision to Yuriorkis Gamboa after an accidental head butt gash suffered by Ponce de Leon halted the action after eight rounds. Ponce de Leon was on a seven fight win streak before the losses in what seemed a direct collision course with Juan Manuel Lopez who took Ponce de Leon’s 122 lbs. title in a first knockout back in ’08.

Across from him in the ring will be Tijuana’s Omar “Dinamita” Estrella (15-3-2, 10KOs) who despite his not so impressive record is looking to make a name for himself by defeating one of the most feared knock out artist in boxing today. The twenty-four year old Estrella has strung together four consecutive wins; three of them by knock out. Along the way, Estrella captured the Mexican Pacific Coast featherweight title and defended successfully versus Sergio “Mickey” Lopez by sixth round TKO back in May. Despite being a virtual unknown on the world stage, Estrella is well known in Tijuana as boxer puncher who has served as a sparring partner for the likes of Erik Morales, Antonio Margarito, Humberto Soto, and Antonio DeMarco among others.

In the semi-main event, undefeated Leo “Terremoto” Santa Cruz (18-0-1, 10KOs) of Lincoln Heights, CA, takes on Alejandro “Payasito” Hernandez (24-8-2, 13KOs) in a bantamweight ten round tilt. Santa Cruz, an amateur stand out who won a gold medal at the World Amateur championships at only fifteen years of age, is the current interim WBC Youth 118 lbs. champ which he captured by stopping Stephane Jamoye in six rounds early last year. The only blemish on his record came in a four round draw in the second bout of his career versus Rodrigo Hernandez.
The Hernandez he faces this Saturday night might be a little tougher than the previous one since he has faced the much tougher opposition in Carlos Tamara, Omar Andres Narvaez and Marvin Sansona who he fought to a draw back in ’09.

Also featured on the fight card will be the always-explosive Marco Antonio Periban (15-0, 10KOs) of Mexico City as he takes on his toughest opponent yet in hard hitting veteran Rito “Relampago” Ruvalcaba (34-11, 30KOs) in an eight round light heavyweight match up. Periban has been moved steadily as he has been racking up the wins to make up his undefeated record with the biggest win of his career so far being the one round destruction of previously undefeated Dion Savage. Savage is trained by Roger Mayweather.

In Ruvalcaba, Periban will face a completely different beast. Despite being well past his prime, Ruvalcaba possesses the great equalizer, power in both fists which were in display in his last win over Juan Carlos Virgen when he stopped the Ensenada favorite with a devastating right upper cut which left Virgen knocked out cold. Ruvalcaba’s experience will also be a factor since he is a former world title challenger when he faced William Joppy for the WBA middleweight crown and has also traded leather with the likes of Luis Ramon Campas, Epifanio Mendoza and Sergio Mora among others.

In a special attraction bantamweight six rounder, Khabir “Crazy Russian” Suleymanov (12-1 returns to Mexico to face the always tough Roberto “Pollito” Lopez (30-22-1, 12KOs) of Tijuana. Suleymanov of Chelyabinsk, Russia, by way of Los Angeles, got back in the win column last month after knocking out the over matched Jorge Guerrero in the first inning in Mexicali, Mexico. Suleymanov was coming off his lone professional defeat last May when he found himself on the losing side of a unanimous decision over top prospect Chris Avalos. Suleymanov owns wins over the tough Javier Gallo who he stopped in nine rounds and Jonathan Arias.

Lopez is an experienced boxer who has faced a number of big name opponents in a twenty-year career including Willie Jorrin, Paulie Ayala, Danny Romero, Carlos Navarro, Mauricio Pastrana, Veeraphol Sahaprom, Fernando Montiel and Olivier Lontchi. In his last bout, Lopez was stopped in four rounds by Ivan Morales, the southpaw younger brother of Erik “Terrible” Morales.

The fight card is fleshed out with four more cards featuring super lightweight Mario “Popeye” Padilla (8-4-3, 1KO) of Tijuana, super welterweight Carlos “Kalimba” Lozano (3-1, 1KO) of Ensenada, and Tijuana’s Javier “Pelon” Gomez (10-7, 7KOs).

January 17th, 2012

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