By Ian S Palmer
Daniel Ponce De Leon returns to the ring this Saturday in Cancun, Mexico as he meets fellow Mexican Joksan Hernandez in a 10-round featherweight bout. The 33-year-old Ponce De Leon is well known to boxing fans as he’s a two-time former world titleholder as a featherweight and super bantamweight. The southpaw is trying to get back on track after being stopped in the ninth round by Abner Mares earlier this year.
Ponce De Leon’s a fan favorite since he lets his hands go and he’s not too hard to hit as well. Hernandez is basically a journeyman who has taken on the likes of Rocky Martinez, Eduardo Escobedo and Miguel Beltran Jr. He’s tough and aggressive and this could be an entertaining bout due to the two boxers’ crowd-pleasing styles.
Ponce De Leon will enter the ring with a record of 44-5 with 35 Kos. He has a lot of experience and has taken on some of the best in the sport during his career such as Abner Mares, Juan Manuel Lopez, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Abner Mares and Adrien Broner. However, he lost to all of them. He has beaten some good fighters though including Jhonny Gonzalez. Ponce De Leon is a fearless boxer with a lot of power and heart, but he can be stopped and he can be outboxed.
The 27-year-old Hernandez has won just two of his last six bouts, losing three of them and drawing the other. His last outing was a second-round stoppage over Hector Rivera and it was his first victory since 2011. He also has quite a bit of power in his fists as can be seen in his record of 23-5-1 with 15 Kos Hernandez will be stepping back up in class against Ponce De Leon and will need to be at his best to beat him.
Ponce De Leon is still quite a capable boxer and a formidable opponent for anybody. If he can handle Hernandez’s power then he will be hard to beat. He needs to dictate the pace by being the aggressor and make sure he backs his opponent up. When he sees the opportunity he usually unloads his power punches and he needs to do this early in the bout.
Hernandez doesn’t really want to get into a toe-to-toe brawl with Ponce De Leon and should try to outbox him instead the same way Yuriorkis Gamboa and Adrien Broner did. Ponce De Leon can definitely be hit and he’s not exactly the quickest guy in the ring. This will give Hernandez some hope and some weaknesses he can try to exploit.
This could be an exciting fight while it lasts. Both boxers have good power and we could see a knockdown or two along the way. Ponce De Leon is getting a little older now, but he should still have enough left in the tank to take this bout by a decision or late stoppage.
