by Ronnie Nathanielsz

The Penalosa brothers Dodie Boy Jr and younger brother Dave scored contrasting victories before a huge crowd that braved the rains to watch an enjoyable evening of boxing in a Gerry Penalosa promotion hosted by Mayor Benhur Abalos at the hotbed of boxing in Luzon, the Mandaluyong City Gym on Saturday.

Dodie Boy Jr scored a third round knockout over an overmatched last minute substitute Dicky Amtrian of Indonesia in  a scheduled ten round bout which failed to test the undefeated southpaw who improved to 12-0 with 11 knockouts.

Despite a nearly eight month layoff Dodie Biy Jr showed fine footwork and solid punching power but his true potential can only be gauged against a worthy opponent not a late substitute with a conflicting record with boxrec.com listing 3 wins and 8 losses while an Indonesian boxing site claimed Amtiran had 9 wins, 3 losses and 8 wins by knockout.

Dodie Boy Jr caught the Indon witha good left flush on the jaw and sent his head through the ropes, forcing Amgiran to take a mandatory eight count. Amgiran connected with a solid right in round two and began to showboat after pulling Dodie Boy Jr down.

In the third a series of crippling body shots dropped the Indonesian who was counted out with under a minute remaining in the round.

In a post fight interview Dodie Boy Jr who improved to 12-0 with 11 knockouts said he caught Amtiran with a solid right and sensed  from the start that the Indonesian was scared.

Dave Penalosa, on the other hand was given a stiff test by Baguio - trained toughie Danilo Gabisay who used his longer reach to advantage, showed he could punch and was not awed by the Penalosa name.

Gabisay caught Dave with a cracking right straight and dropped Penalosa in round three but after being more stunned than hurt Penalosa  came charging back and nailed Gabisay with a fabulous left straight and dropped him with a hard right with 10 seconds left in the round with Gabisay saved by the bell.

Penalosa bided his time and after Gabisay connected with two good right hands, Dave ripped him with a debilitating  punch to the solar plexus to finally end Gabisay's gallant stand at 1:23 of the 5th round. 

The battle between former two-time world title challenger Bernabe Concepcion and former world rated contender Eden Sonsona was correctly elevated to main event status by Penalosa after Dodie Boy Jr's original opponentYon Armed fell ill and had to be replaced after both fighters promised a war.

It was clearly developing into an angry showdown after Sonsona caught Concepcion a couple of times with vicious low blows with Concepcion going after the shifty southpaw with both hands blazing away.

Unfortunately just when it seemed fight fans woud enjoy a spectacular bout Sonsona leaned forward as he threw a punch and rammed his head into the right eyebrow of Concepcion opening up a nasty gash.

GAB doctors May Cortez and Radentor Viernes worked feverishly to try and stop the bleeding and seal the cut but after a fairly lengthy conversation with Concepcion who appeared eager to continue decided to have the fight called it off at 2:26 of the the third round which officially resulted in  a technical draw.

Both former Mayor Ben Abalos who was a witness to "Fighter of the Decade" Manny Pacquiao's exploits during his tenure as Mayor and the incumbent, his son Benhur Abalos both joined fight fans in saying a rematch is in order.