Bautista’s tormentor Ponce de Leon fights for second world title

Daniel Ponce de Leon of Mexico, known for handing Rey “Boom-Boom” Bautista his first career loss, will fight for a second world title on Sept. 15 (Sept. 16 Philippine time) against fellow Mexican and WBC featherweight world champion Jhonny Gonzales.

Filipino boxing fans are familiar with the protagonists because of their history against Filipino boxers.

The 32 year-old Ponce de Leon (43W-4L, 35 KOs), who was then the reigning WBO superbantamweight world champion in 2007, beat Gerry Peñalosa in Las Vegas by unanimous decision for his fourth successful title defense.

In his fifth defense, De Leon stopped Bautista in one round in Sacramento, California.

Bautista told this writer last week that fighting and beating Ponce De Leon in a rematch would mean more to him than winning a world title.

Bautista, who back then was nursing a broken wrist, underwent corrective surgery in 2009 and has since won seven straight fights, six by knockout.

If De Leon wins, it would make things more interesting considering that Bautista is back in the title hunt.

The defending WBC champion Gonzales (52W-7L, 45 KOs) is a former WBO bantamweight world champion. He was dethroned by Gerry Peñalosa by seventh round knockout in the same fight card that De Leon beat Bautista.

The Sacramento boxing card in 2007 was known as the Mexico vs Philippines Boxing World Cup match that also had AJ Banal, Z Gorres, Diosdado Gabi and Michael Domingo scoring wins against Mexican opponents.

The 26 year-old Bautista (33W-2L, 25 KOs) will be fighting Daniel Ruiz (27W-5L-1D, 19 KOs) of Mexico on Oct. 20 for the vacant WBO International featherweight title at the Mall of Asia Arena in the undercard of the WBO world bantamweight title bout between AJ Banal and Pungluang Sor Singyu of Thailand.