NO SLAP HITTERS IN THIS LINEUP

When the lights come on at Arco Arena Aug. 11, there will be no slap hitters in the lineup.

by Ron Borges

What there will be instead is an advertisement for boxing's little men and a question that has never sufficiently been answered will again be asked by the time the night is over. Why do the heavyweights get the money when its guys like Daniel Ponce De Leon, Rey Bautista, Jhonny Gonzalez and Gerry Penalosa who put on the kind of fights fans want to see?

Daniel Ponce De Leon

Promoter Oscar De La Hoya's two-fight card on HBO's Boxing After Dark series is a continuation of his company's World Cup competition that first pitted fighters from Mexico and Thailand and now is doing the same with lineups from Mexico and the Philippines. What this has wrought this time is something that should be called "Mayhem at Midnight" because that's about the time Ponce De Leon will risk both his WBO junior featherweight title and his chin against Bautista, who long-time California promoter Don Chargin says is second only to Manny Pacquiao in popularity in the Philippines for an obvious reason.

"He's a thrilling, all-action fighter," Chargin said. "Put him in against a guy like Ponce De Leon, who tries to knock your head off with every punch, and you have two guys who can't make a bad fight."

Or, one might add, a long one.

De Leon has stopped 28 of his 31 victims, including five of his last seven, with his only loss coming against Panamanian southpaw Celestino Caballero, who outboxed him two years ago at a time when De Leon claims he was more fixated on weight training than power punching. He has since foregone much of the weight work for the kind of old-fashioned gym time that has netted him stoppages in 87 per cent of his fights.

That is not likely to dissuade Bautista (23-0, 17 KO) from coming forward at every instance looking to land a bomb with either hand. Though only 20 years old, Bautista has felt he was ready for a title fight for quite some time and he in fact signed a promotional contract with De La Hoya's company three fights ago for the express purpose of landing a shot with the heavy-handed Ponce De Leon, a fact De La Hoya's matchmaker warned Ponce De Leon about before the match was agreed to.

"Their goal always has been to fight Ponce," Golden Boy Promotions' matchmaker Eric Gomez said. "To tell you the truth, I didn't want to make the fight. As a matchmaker, you want to protect your ticket sellers and these guys sell. Bautista is a really big star in the Philippines. But his management forced us into it.

"You can't make these kinds of fights all the time, but this is going to be an exciting fight. We forewarned Ponce De Leon that Bautista's people wanted the fight, but Ponce's great to promote because he'll take on all comers. He just said, 'When's the fight?"'

In Penalosa, Ponce De Leon was facing a natural bantamweight who was stepping up to face a more powerful puncher without bringing with him the kind of armaments to hurt Ponce De Leon. Yet Penalosa boxed so well that Chargin conceded, "If they had raised Penalosa's hand, you couldn't have argued with it. That's how close that fight was."

Bautista is a far heavier puncher than Penalosa and dangerous with both hands, problems the champion will have to deal with at some point. He surely learned much from watching how Penalosa exposed Ponce De Leon's technical flaws, which are numerous, and if he can capitalize on them the way Penalosa did he will be landing with a far bigger charge. Although the champion punches with deadly power himself, he often throws looping hooks that expose him to quick counters. Now he's in with a guy who has stopped seven of his last nine opponents by doing just that.

That is a problem that will no doubt mean little to Ponce De Leon, however. Like young Bautista, the 26-year-old champion is about one thing -- single-minded aggression, which is what figures to make it impossible for this fight to A) not end early and B) not be the kind of match that leaves fans on their feet and one of the fighters off his.

These are not ponderously moving men. They are not like the heavy-handed but equally heavy-legged heavyweights who look to land a bomb but spend much of their time clinching and seldom throwing. These are two guys who come to the ring firing machine-gun blasts, rapid-fire punches that are thrown with the idea of delivering a leather-gloved sleeping pill to their opponent.

De La Hoya has said Ponce De Leon fights with "reckless fury" and the fighter would have no quarrel with that assessment. To him, a boxing ring is a place to get out his aggression in a legally acceptable fashion, and to make the man in front of him feel all the pain he has known in his life. It is often that way with boxers but Ponce De Leon seems to have taken it to a level bordering on blind fury over what no one quite seems to understand. While what is behind Ponce De Leon's rotweiler-approach to boxing remains somewhat of a mystery, it is welcomed by anyone who favors the kind of meet-in-the-center of the ring and not leave unless compelled to do so approach he favors.

A member of a Mexican Indian tribe from the mountain country, Ponce De Leon does a private ritual before fights in which he believes the spirit of his great, great grandfather, an Indian warrior many generations ago in Mexico, enters his body. He has told friends privately that when he fights he often has no memory of what he did, believing it is his grandfather's warrior ways that are directing him.

Whatever the reason, Ponce De Leon certainly often doesn't listen to his trainers. Even before Penalosa exposed his flaws, the champion's handlers worked hard with him in the gym to improve his boxing skills. According to people who have watched him train regularly, the champion often is seen bobbing and weaving, slipping punches and boxing adroitly in sparring sessions but when he gets to the arena, something happens.

"He's a different guy in the gym," Gomez said. "He takes off the head gear and it all goes out the window. They've worked hard to change him into a more technically-sound fighter but they haven't been able to accomplish it. He is who he is. He's a warrior."

Bautista's advantage, if he has one, is that while he has no fear of matching firepower with Ponce De Leon he has more pure boxing skills, or at least more willingness to use them, and in a duel between power punchers the ability to duck is often underrated.

That ability to box, as well as throw his powerful left hooks and solid right hands at the southpaw champion is why Bautista's supporters believe he will prevail in his first title fight despite his youth. Penalosa certainly showed him the way to do it when he challenged Ponce De Leon, but Ponce De Leon is not 31-1 because he doesn't know how to fight. Defense may be of minimal interest to him but that is partly because he has shown a firm mandible and a furious approach to his work. He brings both to this contest as well as proof that in the past he has learned from his mistakes and improved upon them.

He first won the title by decisioning Thailand's then undefeated Sod Looknongyongtov in a competitive match but when they met again a year later the better prepared and more confident Ponce De Leon needed only 52 seconds to deliver a one-punch knockout that cemented his reputation as one of boxing's most dangerous Little Big Men.

Ponce De Leon has compared himself stylistically to one of the sport's most dominate fighters, Hall of Famer Ricardo "Finito" Lopez, who retired undefeated (50-0-1) and left 37 of his victims on the canvas. Ponce De Leon has a point in that both men seemed more about power punching than technical boxing.

Certainly Ponce De Leon has a ways to go before he's in Finito's company but if he can dispose of Bautista in chilling fashion he will have made another loud statement that he is the latest in Mexico's long tradition of powerful little men.

However, if Bautista can find ways to adjust to Ponce De Leon's left-handed style and weather what will surely be a storm of power punches and deliver his own chin-checking counter, he could prove that his decision to sign with De La Hoya three fights ago was a wise one. While everyone in boxing knows the kind of fast-paced slugfest this figures to be, the fact that no one on either side (with perhaps the exception of the fighters themselves) can be totally sure who will prevail is what gives this fight its mystery.

In the semi-main event, WBO bantamweight champion Gonzalez (34-5, 29 KO) takes on the 34-year-old Penalosa (51-6-2, 34 KO) at a weight (118 pounds) that seems more inviting to the challenger than the 122 pounds he had to put on to get in with Ponce De Leon in March.

Most unbiased observers felt that fight was far closer than the judges' cards and many argued Penalosa deserved the win and the title that night. His performance earned him another title shot at a weight more comfortable to him and although at 34 he may have slipped a little this will be an interesting match of power and youth vs. boxing skills and wiliness. Those skills once made Penalosa the WBC super flyweight champion but that was 10 years ago. He held that title for just over a year before losing a split decision to Korean challenger In Joo Cho in Cho's home country. It was three years before Penalosa got another title shot and he twice lost close and hotly debated decisions to Masamori Tokuyama in Japan, the second another split decision that sent him into a two-year retirement.

Penalosa returned three years ago and has methodically reminded people that he is a hard little man with great technical skills who will stay close to you and make you miss and then make you pay with quick counters before moving out of harms way. Penalosa is the kind of fighter who piles up points by being busy and is always within striking range while at the same time often leaving his opponents frustrated at the difficulties of hitting him. Certainly Ponce De Leon can speak to that.

Gonzalez, on the other hand, is an interesting blend of Ponce De Leon's power and Penalosa's skills, but he carries with him the Achilles heel of all flawed fighters -- a suspect chin. He has been down numerous times in his career and most notably suffered from this tragic flaw when he twice dropped Israel Vasquez a year ago only to be stopped himself when he moved up to challenge Vasquez for the junior featherweight title. Now back at a more comfortable (and safer) 118 pounds, Gonzalez looked good in his first fight back defending the bantamweight title when he stopped Irene Pacheco in March and sent him into retirement so he will arrive in Sacramento intending to do to Penalosa what his stablemate Ponce De Leon could not -- which is outbox him until a moment comes to try and take him out.

Gonzalez is nearly 10 years younger than Penalosa and will have nearly a four inch height and reach advantage. If he uses the former to push the pace and the latter to control the distance he should be able to safely control the fight's terms of engagement and box his way to victory. But if Penalosa can get inside the champion's jab and force him to stand and trade, Jhonny Gonzalez's chin could at some point come into play. In the end, that seems likely to be the story of both these fights on a card that should have been called "Chin Checking Time" by its promoter.