Daniel Ponce de León (born July 27, 1980) is a Mexican former

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional fights are supervised by a regulatory auth ...

who competed from 2001 to 2014. He was a world champion in two

weight classes Weight classes are divisions of competition used to match competitors against others of their own size. Weight classes are used in a variety of sports including Rowing (sport), rowing, Weightlifting#Weightlifting sports, weight lifting, and especi ...

, having held the

WBO The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxin ...

super bantamweight Super bantamweight, also known as junior featherweight, is a boxing weight classes, weight class in professional boxing, contested from and up to . There were attempts by boxing promoters in the 1920s to establish this weight class, but few sanct ...

title from 2005 and 2008, and the WBC

featherweight Featherweight is a weight class in the combat sports of boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts, and Greco-Roman wrestling. Boxing Professional boxing History A featherweight boxer weighs in at a limit of . In the early days of the division, ...

title from 2012 to 2013. As an

amateur An amateur () is generally considered a person who pursues an avocation independent from their source of income. Amateurs and their pursuits are also described as popular, informal, autodidacticism, self-taught, user-generated, do it yourself, DI ...

, de León won a bronze medal in the

flyweight Flyweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Flyweight is a class in boxing which includes fighters weighing up to and including 51 kg (112 lb) for a title fight. Professional boxing The flyweight division was the last of boxin ...

division at the

1999 Pan American Games The 1999 Pan American Games, officially the XIII Pan American Games () or the 13th Pan American Games and commonly known as Winnipeg 1999, were a major international multi-sport event that was held from July 23 to August 8, 1999, in Winnipeg, Ma ...

, and was a member of the 2000 Mexican Olympic team in the featherweight division.He was trained by Vicente Juárez.

Early life

Daniel is a Tarahumara

Amerindian In the Americas, Indigenous peoples comprise the two continents' pre-Columbian inhabitants, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with them in the 15th century, as well as the ethnic groups that identify with the pre-Columbian population of ...

, raised in the

Sierra Madre Occidental The Sierra Madre Occidental is a major mountain range system of the North American Cordillera, that runs northwest–southeast through northwestern and western Mexico, and along the Gulf of California. The Sierra Madre is part of the American C ...

mountain range. Out of five brothers he was the only one to survive, due to the harsh conditions in his tribal area, the Sierra Madre.

Amateur career

Daniel was a Mexican National Amateur champion and a bronze medalist at the

. He then went on to represent Mexico at the 2000 Summer Olympics, where he was defeated in the first round by Ukraine's Volodymyr Sydorenko.

WBO junior featherweight champion

On October 29, 2005 he defeated Sod Kokietgym by unanimous decision, handing Looknongyangtoy his first career loss. He has defended his

junior featherweight title eight times against Gerson Guerrero, Reynaldo Lopez, Sod Kokietgym twice, Al Seeger, Gerry Peñalosa, Rey Bautista and Eduardo Escobedo. Ponce de León's first loss was a unanimous decision loss to

Celestino Caballero Celestino Caballero (born June 21, 1976) is a Panamanian former professional boxer who competed from 1998 to 2014. He held world championships in two weight classes, including the unified WBA (Super) and IBF super bantamweight titles betwee ...

on February 17, 2005. Ponce de León retained his title against Eduardo Escobedo on December 8, 2007 via unanimous decision, as part of the undercard of the

Floyd Mayweather Jr. Floyd Joy Mayweather Jr. (né Sinclair; born February 24, 1977) is an American boxing promoter and former professional boxer who competed between 1996 and 2017. He list of undefeated boxing world champions, retired with an undefeated record a ...

–

Ricky Hatton Richard John Hatton (born 6 October 1978) is a British former professional boxer who competed between 1997 and 2012, and has since worked as a boxing promoter and boxing trainer, trainer. During his boxing career he held multiple world champi ...

fight. On June 7, 2008 Ponce de León was defeated by technical knockout in the first round by Juan Manuel López, losing his

Super Bantamweight Super bantamweight, also known as junior featherweight, is a boxing weight classes, weight class in professional boxing, contested from and up to . There were attempts by boxing promoters in the 1920s to establish this weight class, but few sanct ...

title. De León was the headliner of a sold out Golden Boy show and inched closer to another world title shot by knocking out Puerto Rican, Orlando Cruz. Daniel defeated Cornelius Lock on May 1, 2010 the undercard of Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Shane Mosley in the MGM Grand Garden Arena on HBO PPV to retain his WBC Latino featherweight title.

Super featherweight contention

On March 5, 2011, De Leon moved up to the super featherweight division to face undefeated prospect Adrien Broner. The fight was expected to be a showcase bout for the younger and larger Broner, however, De Leon proved to be more competitive than anticipated as Broner was awarded a highly disputed ten round unanimous decision.LaBate, Chris (2011-03-05
Adrien Broner Decisions Daniel Ponce De Leon in Ten – Boxing News
Boxingscene.com. Retrieved on 2014-02-01.

WBC featherweight champion

In an upset, Ponce de Leon emerged victorious over WBC featherweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez, coming away with an eighth-round unanimous technical decision victory before a sold-out crowd at Saturday night's Showtime-televised event at the MGM Grand. The bout ended when a nasty gash emerged over the right eye of Gonzalez (52–8, 45 KOs), of Mexico City, after which it was determined that Gonzalez could not continue, they went to the scorecards and he won via: 79–72, 79–72, 77–74, all for Ponce de Leon. Ponce de Leon fought Abner Mares in the Mayweather-Guerrero undercard on May 4, 2013 and got knocked down in the second and ninth rounds en route to a TKO loss at 2:20 of the ninth round, losing his WBC featherweight title in the process.

Professional boxing record

Exhibition boxing record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Ponce de Leon, Daniel 1980 births Boxers at the 1999 Pan American Games Boxers at the 2000 Summer Olympics Living people Boxers from Chihuahua (state) Olympic boxers for Mexico Southpaw boxers World Boxing Organization champions American male boxers Pan American Games bronze medalists for Mexico Flyweight boxers Bantamweight boxers Super-featherweight boxers World Boxing Council champions Pan American Games bronze medalists in boxing Indigenous sportspeople of the Americas World super-bantamweight boxing champions World featherweight boxing champions People from Ciudad Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua Medalists at the 1999 Pan American Games Rarámuri people 20th-century American sportsmen