Negrense pugilist Gerry Peñalosa said he feels his punches pack more power than ever as he prepares for another world title fight, this time, against Mexican Daniel Ponce De Leon on Sunday for the World Boxing Organization bantamweight belt at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.

Overshadowed by the success of Manny Pacquiao in recent years, the 34-year-old southpaw from San Carlos City said he is comfortable fighting in the 118-122 lbs. division.

"I feel I have more power. That's what I feel right now. I don't need to lose weight, I feel fully loaded," Peñalosa said in an interview with maxboxing.com.

Peñalosa, who began his storied career in 1989, has a current record of 51-5-2 spiked by 34 KOs. He won the WBC super flyweight title in 1997 by taking a split decision in Japan against Hiroshi Kawashima.

But he would lose the title five bouts later to South Korean In Joo Cho via split decision in Korea. Peñalosa suffered another split verdict in Korea a year later.

In 2001, he would lose a close unanimous decision to Masamori Tokuyama for the same WBC belt, before coming up short again for that WBC title by dropping another decision in Japan in 2002.

Penalosa left the ring for two years, after that loss.

American Billy Keane, who co-manages Peñalosa with Freddie Roach, has called the San Carlos City pug a "dream boxer".

"The thing about Gerry is, Freddie feels that Gerry is technically the greatest boxer to ever come out of the Philippines in the history of boxing," Keane said.

"He did come around at the wrong time, and he is a very big name in the Philippines, but people haven't discovered him yet here," Keane said.

"I think his career has defied common logic. He took two years off after he lost his title fight. His father died a week before the fight, he had to take care of his family obligations".

But Peñalosa is very slick, Keane said. "Gerry will catch Ponce de Leon, who is wild. He's strong and fit, but Gerry's also very fit and it's hard to land a clean shot on Gerry."

Keane said the years off really did Peñalosa well.

"He's fighting a lot better now at the higher weights, settling down on his punches and he looks much better now than he's looked in probably five, six, years," Keane added.

Peñalosa returned to the ring on September 2004 when he would overpower Samingkao Chutipol. He won four more fights, the latest of which came in October when he stopped Mauricio Martinez in eight rounds. *CPT

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