Southpaw With Amateur Team
Daniel Ponce de Leon knows what it’s like to be a hungry young amateur boxer with dreams of making the Olympic team and later going pro. The southpaw from Chihuahua, Mexico made both of these dreams a reality; now his fellow pugilists look to him for inspiration.
I caught up with the 2000 Olympian and professional prizefighter who has amassed a 47-3 with 34 KOs record during a recent fight night at the Avalon Hollywood. Ponce was at the Los Angeles Matadors vs. Mexico City Guerreros fight to cheer on the up-and-coming amateurs. The teams were facing off through the World Series of Boxing competition in which the top boxers earn a spot in the 2012 Olympic Games.
The boxer was surrounded by many who wanted to talk to him about his own recent bout. Ponce’s last fight ended in controversy when he lost his battle against Adrien Broner on March 5. Losing by a unanimous decision, the 30-year-old feels he won the fight and said he would like to rematch Broner in the future.
“Yes, I would want a rematch,” the WBC Latino Featherweight titlist told me. “The press, the fans–everyone thought I won!”
For the Broner contest, Ponce de Leon fought at a higher weight of 128 1/2 but said he will be going back down to his lower weight of 126.
“When are you hoping to fight next?” I asked him.
“I’ll be back in May,” he answered.
While the amateur bouts got underway, I noticed Ponce knew a lot of the Guerrero team members.
“I worked out with a lot of them when they were in town,” the boxer confirmed. “I didn’t spar with them but I went to the gym they were at.”
Another Mexican Olympic boxer, Francisco Vargas (2008 Beijing Olympics) was also there to wave his country’s green, white and red flags. Guerrero coordinator Mariana Caballero and Vargas were sharing Guerrero rattlers, beads and bracelets with Ponce and the large Guerrero fan base who showed up to root for their home team.
Showing his loyalty to the Mexico City Guerreros, Ponce was later seen sporting a Guerreros T-shirt as he visited with former fighter Salvador Jasso. As a former WBO Super Bantamweight Champ, Mexican National Amateur Champion and a 1999 Bronze Medalist in the Pan Am Games, Daniel was an amateur standout in his homeland.
Now in Los Angeles, both Ponce de Leon and Vargas worked out with trainer Rodrigo Mosquera, along with many of the Guerrero sluggers including Kennedy Katende and Yamaguchi Falco Florentino at the Eddie Heredia Boxing Gym in L.A.
Vargas’ trainer Mosquera was in the Mexico City corner and after the fights, he mentioned, “After my son Anthony won Gold in Pan American Games I met the Olympic Committee in Mexico; we have a good relationship with the Guerreros.”
The visiting team won one of their matchups versus the Matadors but Mosquera, the head trainer at the legendary Eddie Heredia gym, said he thinks they really won at least two of the bouts. “But that happens,” the veteran coach concedes. “Even with Ponce’s fight that was just bad luck; I thought he won even with his eyes closed!”
Look for Ponce to return to the ring in the next couple of months.
And while the WSB playoffs are set to begin this month, look for many of the amateurs to continue to move up through the ranks in the future, in hopes of achieving the same goals as Daniel Ponce de Leon has attained.
Photos by Michele Chong, Rodrigo Mosquera and Salvador Jasso
