Gerry Penalosa, fighting Puerto Rican sensation Juan Manuel Lopez this Sunday morning, has been waiting for his date with Destiny for 20 years. He would send her flowers, buy her drinks, even chase her through cold winters in South Korea and Japan. She made eyes and flirted back, but invariably, she would cancel at the last minute. Destiny, that cruel, stuck-up tease.

Penalosa had boxing stardom written into his DNA. He came from a family of boxers, and his older brother Dodie Boy became world champion in the '80s, a hero who overcame childhood polio to rise to the top. Gerry honed a counterpunching style made purely of the sugar that gives the "Sweet Science" its name, and by 1997, at age 25, he was WBC World super flyweight champion.

But this all happened Before Pacman, and in days B.P., Filipino boxers, even world champions, had a hard time finding big paydays. So Gerry Penalosa's manager, Rex "Wakee" Salud, did what boxing managers do B.P.: he booked Gerry for a fight in hostile South Korea, the hometown decision capital of the world. Penalosa spent 12 rounds chasing local challenger In-Joo Cho all over the ring before losing his title in a controversial split decision. If Manny Pangilinan, Dick Gordon, and Gary Lising referee'd an Ateneo-La Salle UAAP championship match, their decision-making would be fairer.

A frustrated Penalosa accused Salud of selling him out. Penalosa complained of the conditions prior to the fight, including the lack of heat in his hotel room, a Korean driver who took them for a ride in Seoul before the fight, and other dirty tactics that he alleged Salud did not look out for. His manager, Penalosa thought, cared more about the payday than the welfare of his fighter.

Penalosa left Wakee Salud and hooked up with Rudy Salud (no relation), the boxing enthusiast and former PBA commissioner, prior to his mandatory rematch with Cho. However, the fight still had to be done in Seoul, Cho still ran around the ring, the judges still did not care much for Penalosa, and Gerry still lost a controversial decision.

Cho lost the title to Japanese Masamori Tokuyama, and Penalosa was in line to fight for the title once more. But Tokuyama in Tokyo proved as elusive as Cho was in Seoul, and Penalosa suffered not one, but two controversial decisions to the Japanese champion.

Frustrated, Rudy Salud decided to end his managerial relationship with Penalosa. Reading between the lines in his interviews, one gets the feeling that Salud felt that Penalosa had not wanted to win enough, and thus had not done nearly enough to KO the champion. For Penalosa, it was the latest in a string of bad hands, another date penciled out of the planner by Destiny.

Gerry Penalosa retired in 2002, not so much of weary fists or a battered face--Penalosa had never been knocked down in his entire career--but of a broken heart. Destiny, it seems, had finally cockblocked the former champ into submission.

But more than anything else, he was a boxer, and as boxers are wont to do, Penalosa returned to the ring in 2004. By this time Pacquiao had become a full-fledged superstar, and it was easier for Penalosa to get big-money fights.

There were fewer expectations this time, and in 2007, Penalosa scored a slot in the Juan Manuel Marquez-Marco Antonio Barrera against world bantamweight titlist Daniel Ponce De Leon. Originally brought in as a sitting duck for the young champ, the 35-year-old Penalosa threw the script out and gave De Leon all he could handle. De Leon still won the decision, but more than a few observers thought the fight was much closer, and some even said that Penalosa should have won.


Juan Manuel Lopez knocks out Daniel Ponce De Leon in the first round

The good showing despite the loss opened doors for Gerry, who improbably captured his second world title 10 years after his first by stopping bantamweight champion Jhonny Gonzales four months after the De Leon fight. A successful series of defenses put Penalosa back in the spotlight, and Destiny, that seductive mistress, came calling once more.

This time, Penalosa is up against the firebreathing Lopez, who knocked out De Leon in the first round of their title match last year. Juanma, a power puncher with a string of big KOs, is knocking on the door of international stardom, and a victory over Penalosa would boost him up the pound-for-pound ranks.

For Penalosa, there must be a sense of deja vu. He's going once more into the lion's den, fighting in his opponent's hometown in Bayamon, Puerto Rico. Unlike Cho and Tokuyama, though, Lopez won't be doing any running; he's a power puncher looking to stand toe-to-toe for the knockout.

At this point in his career, Penalosa is just playing with house money, and he has nothing left to lose. But at 36, Gerry knows what this is: his ultimate shot at a date with Destiny. And a final chance to ride the sunset with fists high and heart unbroken.