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 bouts are supervised by a regulatory autho ...

who competed from 2001 to 2014. He was a world champion 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, especially combat sports (such as boxing, kickboxing, mixed martial arts and wrestling). Altern ...

, having held the WBO

super bantamweight Super bantamweight, also known as junior featherweight, is a 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 sanctioning organizations or ...

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, this ...

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 above 49 kg (108 lb) and up to 51 kg (112 lb). Professional boxing The flyweight division was the last of bo ...

division at the

1999 Pan American Games The 1999 Pan American Games, officially the XIII Pan American Games or the 13th Pan American Games, was a major international multi-sport event that was held from July 23 to August 8, 1999, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and surrounding towns and ...

, and was a member of the 2000 Mexican Olympic team in the featherweight division.

Early life

Daniel is a Tarahumara

Amerindian The Indigenous peoples of the Americas are the inhabitants of the Americas before the arrival of the European settlers in the 15th century, and the ethnic groups who now identify themselves with those peoples. Many Indigenous peoples of the Am ...

, 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

. Ponce de León would then go onto represent

Mexico at the 2000 Summer Olympics Mexico competed at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Medalists Archery In its sixth Olympic archery competition, Mexico entered two competitors. Both lost in the first round. ;Men Athletics ;Men ;Track and road events ; ...

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 WBO

junior featherweight Super bantamweight, also known as junior featherweight, is a 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 sanctioning organizations or ...

title eight times against Gerson Guerrero, Reynaldo Lopez, Sod Kokietgym twice,

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Rey Bautista Reynaldo "Rey" Bautista (born June 19, 1986 in Candijay, Bohol, Philippines), more commonly known as Boom Boom Bautista, is a retired Filipino professional boxer who once fought for the WBO junior featherweight title. He currently resides in Tag ...

and Eduardo Escobedo. Ponce de León's first loss was a unanimous decision loss to Celestino Caballero 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; February 24, 1977) is an American boxing promoter and former professional boxer. He currently owns a team in the NASCAR Cup Series named The Money Team Racing. As a professional boxer he competed b ...

–

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 trainer. During his boxing career he held multiple world championships at li ...

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

Super Bantamweight Super bantamweight, also known as junior featherweight, is a 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 sanctioning organizations or ...

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 vs. Shane Mosley Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Shane Mosley, billed as ''Who R U Picking?'', was a boxing welterweight non-title superfight, in which Mayweather Jr. won by unanimous decision with two judges scoring it 119–109 and one judge scoring it 118–110. Th ...

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 Adrien Jerome Broner (; born July 28, 1989) is an American professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in four weight classes, including the WBO super featherweight title from 2011 to 2012, the WBC lightweight title from 201 ...

. 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 Indigenous Mexicans Living people Boxers from Chihuahua (state) Olympic boxers of 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 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