Daniel Ponce de León
Daniel Ponce de León ( born July 27, 1980 in Cuauhtemoc, Chihuahua ) is a Mexican professional boxer, former WBO world champion in the super bantamweight and former WBC Featherweight Champion.
Boxing career
As an amateur he won the 1997 international junior Olympics in Mexico City, the bronze medal at the Pan American Games in Winnipeg in 1999, and with the U.S. Olympic qualification in 2000 in Tampa. At the Summer Olympics in Sydney the same year, however, he lost his first fight against Wladimir Sidorenko already on points.
Since March 2001, he boxes in the professional camp and is at Golden Boy Promotions under contract. He won his first 24 fights in a row, including 23 by knockout. Among the defeated opponents included the world title challenger Jesús Salvador Perez ( 23-3 ), Cesar Figueroa ( 26-3 ), Emmanuel Lucero ( 22-2 ) and Julio Gamboa ( 28-8 ).
In his 25th professional fight on 17 February 2005, he lost on points against the five -time world champion Celestino Caballero (20-2 ), but won his next fight by KO against Ricardo Barajas ( 23-4 ). On 29 October 2005, he finally punched in Tucson for the WBO world against Sod Kokietym ( 25-0 ) and won by unanimous decision. For the first time he defended his title in May 2006 by Ko in the second round against Gerson Guerrero ( 30-6 ). Even the rematch against Sod Kokietym he won by KO in the first round.
In October 2006, he sat down by t.K.o. in the eighth round against Al Seeger (27-1 ) won by unanimous decision in March 2007 against Gerry Peñalosa ( 51-5 ). In August of the same year he won by t.K.o. in the first round against Rey Bautista ( 23-0 ) and in September in a non-title fight by KO in the fifth round against Reynaldo Lopez ( 28-4 ). In December, he defended his title for the sixth and final time against Eduardo Escobedo ( 21-2 ) by unanimous scoring.
On 7 June 2008, he lost his WBO title by a surprising TKO defeat in the first round of the Puerto ricaner Juan Manuel Lopez ( 21-0 ) after Ponce de León suffered two heavy rainfall and the referee out of the fight was taken. He then moved to the featherweight and won his next seven fights, including prematurely against Orlando Cruz (16-1 ), Antonio Escalante ( 24-2 ) and Sergio Manuel Medina ( 35-3 ).
On March 5, 2011, he succumbed not without controversy on points against Adrien Broner ( 19-0 ), and September 10, 2011 by technical decision to Yuriorkis Gamboa ( 20-0 ); by a violation of Ponce de León's forehead by a accidental headbutt by Gamboa in Infight, the fight in the eighth round was canceled and evaluated the score sheet on which was the Cubans in the lead.
With two victories against Omar Estrella ( 15-3 ) and Eduardo Lazcano ( 24-2 ) won a world title chance against the WBC Jhonny Gonzalez ( 52-7 ) and won the title early in the eighth round.
On 4 May 2013, lost his world title by a TKO in the ninth round defeat to Abner Mares ( 25-0 ). On March 15, 2014, he lost also again against Juan Manuel Lopez ( 33-3 ) by TKO in the second round.