Three Filipino world champions boomed with their fists yesterday, scoring abbreviated victories to retain their titles at the Araneta Coliseum.
Leading the Filipino charge was Gerry Peñalosa, who remained on track for high-profile fights against high-profile fighters by hammering out an eighth round stoppage of Thailand’s Ratanachai Sor Vorapin to retain his World Boxing Organization (WBO) bantamweight title.

Peñalosa’s win capped the celebration of similar knockout wins by Rey Bautista and AJ Banal.

Bautista knocked out Genaro Camargo of Mexico in the second round to keep his World Boxing Organization (WBO) Intercontinental Jr. featherweight title while Banal stopped Caril Herrera of Uruguay in the fourth round to remain the International Boxing Federation (IBF) Intercontinental Jr. bantamweight titlist. (Related story on Sports Page 1)

“I feel sorry for Vorapin because only one of us is going to win,” said the 35-year-old Peñalosa, looking in the direction of Sor Vorapin, whose face looked like a Halloween mask.

Fighting for the first time in eight months, Peñalosa rained blows with the 31-year-old challenger, forcing Chicago-based Puerto Rican referee Genaro Rodriguez to call a mercy halt at the 2:31 mark of the eighth round.

Peñalosa had Sor Vorapin, who lost to the Filipino pug in six rounds nearly seven years ago, down earlier but the Thai told the referee that he was okay.

But it turned out to be a costly mistake as the Filipino pounced on him like a leopard on a hapless prey.

Peñalosa told mediamen that he “got hurt a few times” but his will to win propeled him to victory.

“He hit me with good shots and I felt hurt but when you badly want to win, you can take punishment,” said Peñalosa, who is drooling over the prospects of meeting Daniel Ponce de Leon of Mexico for the second time sometime in July.

“Rey, let me take care of him first,” Peñalosa said, glancing at super-bantam Rey Bautista, who is also aching to get it on with Ponce De Leon.

“I am not getting any younger,” said Peñalosa, who had won the WBO title by halting Mexican Johnny Gonzalez last August at the Arco Arena in Sacramento, California.

Bautista, who knocked out his Mexican foe earlier, is also training his sights on Ponce De Leon, who dealt him a vicious first round knockout loss last year.

While Bautista is raring to avenge his only loss, Peñalosa looks to be the more worthy foe for De Leon.

Trainer Freddie Roach gave a grade of 10 for Peñalosa’s performance although he was a bit worried when his prized puncher at 118 lbs appeared to have relaxed after the fourth round.

“He could have got the guy a lot sooner if he put the pressure on the guy but he took his time and I told Gerry that we should take this guy out before something happens like we got cut or something,” said Roach, who flew in from Los Angeles six hours earlier to be in the corner.

“It was a beautiful performance and it showed that he is truly a great technician,” added the 48-year-old Roach.

Golden Boy Promotions (GBP) vice president Eric Gomez, whose Los Angeles-based outfit staged the slugfest in coordination with ABS-CBN, ALA Boxing Club and SGG Promotions, said things are looking up for Peñalosa.

“Very good performance for Peñalosa and as we have promised, we are going to look at the best fights for him,” said Gomez, who is being assisted here by GBP Chief Operating Officer David Istkowich and publicity chief Ramiro Gonzalez in the absence of GBP owner and president, Oscar De La Hoya.

The win raised Peñalosa’s win-loss-draw card to 53-6-2 with 36 knockouts, while the defeat dropped Sor Vorapin’s ledger to 72-10 with 48 wins inside the distance.

Aside from De Leon, Peñalosa also wants to square off with another fancied Mexican, Rafael Marquez, younger brother of Juan Manuel.

But first thing’s first. On the horizon is the dreaded De Leon.

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LOS ANGELES — Manny Pacquiao is ready for anything, everything Juan Manuel Marquez will have to offer on March 15 in Las Vegas.
“It’s up to him what type of a fight he wants – whether toe-to-toe or hit-and-run. Whatever he wants, I’ll give it to him,” said Pacquiao.
In his cozy La Palazzo apartment Friday, after an early dinner of fish, steamed rice and corn soup, Pacquiao gazed at the coming fight.
He liked what he saw.
“Because I have the key to anything he plans to do,” said Pacquiao, craning his neck toward a group of friends playing darts in his living room.
“Whatever happens there I’m ready, I’m prepared,” said Pacquiao.
He was asked to elaborate.
Pacquiao, arguably the hardest puncher in the sport today, said his fight crew, which includes Freddie Roach, Eric Brown, Buboy Fernandez and Nonoy Neri, has long drawn the master plan.
“We believe that power and strategy will determine the outcome,” said Pacquiao, who floored Marquez three times in the opening round of their 2004 match, only to be dragged into a controversial draw.
“It’s the question of ‘can I handle his power or can he handle mine?’ If we both can, then it’s going to be a good fight. Strategy comes in,” said Pacquiao.
“And in terms of speed, even if he can match mine, I have full faith in my power.”
He said he’ll always be alert and ready if Marquez, the great counter-puncher from Mexico City, comes to him instead, and triggers a good, early exchange in the hope of landing a big one.
“Marquez may have the tendency to come in. It could be part of their plan. But I’m ready for that. I know what to do,” he said.
Pacquiao said he prefers an early exchange.
“But if I catch him with one solid punch, I’m sure he’d run away. Then he’d just try to counter and counter the whole evening,” Pacquiao said.
He said the other day if Marquez runs away, then the fight becomes boring.
Nobody wants that to happen.

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HOLLYWOOD – It could only come as a bad news for Juan Manuel Marquez – everything falling into place in training for Manny Pacquiao.

Despite starting a bit late compared to the early grind by his Mexican rival in their buildup for the March 15 rematch, the Filipino icon remains upbeat two weeks into the eight-week preparation for his title crack at the Marquez’ WBC super featherweight belt.

“Tuloy tuloy na (Everything coming along fine),” said Pacquiao emerging from a two-hour workout at the crowded Wildcard Boxing Club gym along Vine Street.

The 29-year old Pacquiao earlier closeted himself inside American trainer Freddie Roach’s private room and worked on the punch mitts for four rounds with Filipino buddy Buboy Fernandez.

Eight more rounds on the mitts Pacquiao did with Roach later on the gym’s lone ring, unloading power shot after power shot with Top Rank’s matchmaker Bruce Trampler, named one of the most powerful people in boxing by Yahoo!Sports, an interested spectator at ringside.

“He’s never been in better shape than at this time (in training),” said Roach.

The Filipino champ, moving confidently and in high spirits, later went through shadow boxing drill, at one point, sharing the ring with younger brother Bobby who is slated for a showdown with Mexican Urbano Antillon in Las Vegas March 13.

Another week of light training is in store for the Filipino slugger for the rematch of his May 2004 duel with Marquez which ended in a controversial draw and has since stoked the fire of a second confrontation, staking national pride, honor and boxing legacy.

“An epic fight between a great Filipino fighter and a great Mexican champ, “ said Trampler.

Two more boxers have been lined up by Roach, hiking the number to six counter-punching sparring partners when Pacquiao goes into serious, heavy workout and sparring beginning either Feb. 4 or 5, according to Roach.

“I don’t want to burn him out,” said the former Trainer of the Year of the training timetable he programmed for Pacquiao.

One of the two new boxers in Roach list is Mexican J. Garcia. The others are Danny Cervantes, Roger (Speedy) Gonzales, David Rodela and 22-year old Adrian “A-Game” Gallon, a black American welterweight from San Francisco.

“He’s no doubt one of the best in the world but I’m just gonna try and do my best and hopefully give him the best work possible. I’m not intimidated but just very anxious and hopefully they’ll like what I’ll bring to the table,” said Gallon in a talk with John Chavez of Boxing News.

Meanwhile, Roach will be in Gerry Peñalosa’s corner when the Cebuano champ takes on Thai challenger Ratanachai Vorapin in a mandatory defense of his WBO bantamweight crown on March 2 at the Araneta Coliseum.

The American trainer will arrive on the day of the fight and leave the Pacquiao training chores to Fernandez for a period of three days.

“His presence will be a big boost to my confidence,” said Peñalosa who hopes to arrange a rematch with tormentor Daniel Ponce de Leon mid this year.

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Manny Pacquiao will have his hands full against Juan Manuel Marquez that his promoter, Bob Arum, has refused to look farther ahead of the March 15 rematch in Las Vegas.

“Marquez alone is already too much to handle,” said the Top Rank president when asked about his plans for the 29-year-old Filipino superstar for the coming year.

“Manny Pacquiao wants to fight three times next year. But we really can’t look too far ahead,” said Arum who wants an all-out promotional campaign for the Marquez fight.

Arum was just delighted that Pacquiao has agreed to train in the US, at the Wild Card Gym in Los Angeles, for the whole eight to 10 weeks heading to the anticipated title showdown.

This way, Arum said, he can do all the promoting he wants for the fight, and this includes special appearances by Pacquiao in television shows like that of Jay Leno’s.

“We can do that while he’s in training. And we can only do that if he’s in the US. It wasn’t that difficult to convince Manny to train in the US,” said Arum, who was in Manila recently.

Pacquiao was scheduled to fly to the US yesterday with his wife Jinkee and their three kids. They plan to spend a few days in Las Vegas, after a weeklong Christmas treat in Boracay.

It’s not clear whether Pacquiao will fly back to Manila with his family after the short vacation, or if he’d stay in Los Angeles until he begins training for the Marquez bout.

Arum confirmed that early plans include a possible fight with WBC lightweight king David Diaz in Macau in July, and a possible date with Ricky Hatton or someone else in Dubai in November

“But I want to focus on the Marquez fight first. I have a fight to sell on March 15,” said Arum, also open to a dream match between Pacquiao and Oscar dela Hoya late next year.

But again, he doesn’t want to get too far ahead.

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BRISTOL, Connecticut (Ticker) - The world’s No. 1 pound-for-pound boxer reportedly is considering a revolutionary jump to mixed martial arts.

According to a report on ESPN.com on Saturday, Floyd Mayweather Jr. is discussing a deal with Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban to move from boxing to MMA.

Mayweather’s interest in participating in an MMA event reportedly was sparked after he struck up a friendship with Cuban during their participation on the ABC reality series “Dancing with the Stars.”

Cuban was Mayweather’s guest at his December 8 fight and even carried two of his championship belts into the ring before he knocked out England’s Ricky Hatton to retain the welterweight world championship in Las Vegas.

Mayweather, 30, and Cuban were together again Thursday in Las Vegas, according to the report, where they met to discuss various business ventures, including Mayweather participating in an MMA event.

Leonard Ellerbe, Mayweather’s adviser and best friend, told ESPN.com Friday night that the five-division world champion came away from a Thursday meeting with Cuban giving serious thought to taking his game and considerable drawing power to MMA.

Mayweather’s two bouts in 2007, against Hatton and Oscar de la Hoya, generated 3.25 million pay-per-view buys and more than $200 million in revenue. Mayweather personally earned about $50 million for the two fights.

Ellerbe also told the web site that Mayweather is currently on vacation, but will discuss the prospect of an MMA bout in more detail when he returns.

Among Cuban’s business interests is ownership of HDNet Fights, a fledgling mixed martial arts promotional company whose bouts are aired on Cuban’s HDNet. Cuban promoted his second event December 15 in Dallas.

“Floyd is considering fighting with HDNet Fights,” Cuban told ESPN.com. “We are going to let him visit some gyms to talk to some folks about what it would take to learn. He knows it won’t be easy. But he is getting involved with MMA and HDNet Fights one way or another.

“He is pumped about it. He wants to go on to the next big thing. Floyd is a brilliant marketer. He follows the money.”

Former heavyweight contenders Ray Mercer and Frans Botha both attempted to make the jump from boxing to mixed martial arts with little success.

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