| Daniel Ponce de León | |
| Nickname: | El León ("The Lion") |
| Weight: | |
| Height: | 5 ft 5 in |
| Reach: | 70 in |
| Birth Date: | 27 July 1980 |
| Birth Place: | Ciudad Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua, Mexico |
| Style: | Southpaw |
| Total: | 52 |
| Wins: | 45 |
| Ko: | 35 |
| Losses: | 7 |
Daniel Ponce de León (born July 27, 1980) is a Mexican former professional boxer who competed from 2001 to 2014. He was a world champion in two weight classes, having held the WBO super bantamweight title from 2005 and 2008, and the WBC featherweight title from 2012 to 2013. As an amateur, de León won a bronze medal in the flyweight division at the 1999 Pan American Games, and was a member of the 2000 Mexican Olympic team in the featherweight division.
Daniel is a Tarahumara Amerindian,[1] raised in the Sierra Madre Occidental 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. [2]
Daniel was a Mexican National Amateur champion and a bronze medalist at the 1999 Pan American Games. 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.[3]
On October 29, 2005 he defeated Sod Kokietgym by unanimous decision, handing Looknongyangtoy his first career loss.[4] He has defended his WBO 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 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.–Ricky Hatton fight.[5] 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 title.
De León was the headliner of a sold out Golden Boy show[6] and inched closer to another world title shot by knocking out Puerto Rican, Orlando Cruz.[7] Daniel defeated Cornelius Lock on May 1, 2010 the undercard of Floyd Mayweather vs. Shane Mosley[8] in the MGM Grand Garden Arena on HBO PPV to retain his WBC Latino featherweight title.[9]
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.[10]
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.
| Result | Record | Opponent | Type | Round, time | Date | Location | Notes | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 52 | Loss | 45–7 | TKO | 9 (10), | Jun 7, 2014 | ||||
| 51 | Loss | 45–6 | Juan Manuel López | TKO | 2 (10), | Mar 15, 2014 | |||
| 50 | Win | 45–5 | Joksan Hernandez | UD | 10 | Nov 16, 2013 | |||
| 49 | Loss | 44–5 | Abner Mares | TKO | 9 (12), | May 4, 2013 | |||
| 48 | Win | 44–4 | Jhonny González | TD | 8 (12), | Sep 15, 2012 | |||
| 47 | Win | 43–4 | Eduardo Lazcano | UD | 10 | May 4, 2012 | |||
| 46 | Win | 42–4 | Omar Estrella | KO | 6 (12), | Jan 21, 2012 | |||
| 45 | Loss | 41–4 | Yuriorkis Gamboa | 8 (12), | Sep 10, 2011 | ||||
| 44 | Loss | 41–3 | Adrien Broner | UD | 10 | Mar 5, 2011 | |||
| 43 | Win | 41–2 | Sergio Manuel Medina | TKO | 7 (10), | Dec 4, 2010 | |||
| 42 | Win | 40–2 | Antonio Escalante | KO | 3 (12), | Sep 18, 2010 | |||
| 41 | Win | 39–2 | Cornelius Lock | UD | 10 | May 1, 2010 | |||
| 40 | Win | 38–2 | Orlando Cruz | KO | 3 (12), | Feb 20, 2010 | |||
| 39 | Win | 37–2 | Roinet Caballero | UD | 12 | Sep 5, 2009 | |||
| 38 | Win | 36–2 | Marlon Aguilar | UD | 12 | Apr 25, 2009 | |||
| 37 | Win | 35–2 | Damian Marchiano | KO | 4 (10), | Nov 1, 2008 | |||
| 36 | Loss | 34–2 | Juan Manuel López | TKO | 1 (12), | Jun 7, 2008 | |||
| 35 | Win | 34–1 | Eduardo Escobedo | UD | 12 | Dec 8, 2007 | |||
| 34 | Win | 33–1 | Reynaldo Lopez | KO | 5 (10), | Sep 28, 2007 | |||
| 33 | Win | 32–1 | Rey Bautista | TKO | 1 (12), | Aug 11, 2007 | |||
| 32 | Win | 31–1 | Gerry Peñalosa | UD | 12 | Mar 17, 2007 | |||
| 31 | Win | 30–1 | Al Seeger | TKO | 8 (12), | Oct 21, 2006 | |||
| 30 | Win | 29–1 | Sod Kokietgym | KO | 1 (12), | Jul 15, 2006 | |||
| 29 | Win | 28–1 | Gerson Guerrero | KO | 2 (12), | May 27, 2006 | |||
| 28 | Win | 27–1 | Sod Kokietgym | UD | 12 | Oct 29, 2005 | |||
| 27 | Win | 26–1 | Phillip Payne | TKO | 7 (12), | Jun 24, 2005 | |||
| 26 | Win | 25–1 | Ricardo Barajas | KO | 2 (10), | Apr 29, 2005 | |||
| 25 | Loss | 24–1 | Celestino Caballero | UD | 12 | Feb 17, 2005 | |||
| 24 | Win | 24–0 | Julio Gamboa | KO | 4 (10), | Nov 19, 2004 | |||
| 23 | Win | 23–0 | Emmanuel Lucero | KO | 3 (12), | Oct 22, 2004 | |||
| 22 | Win | 22–0 | Carlos Contreras | 10 | Jun 11, 2004 | ||||
| 21 | Win | 21–0 | Anthony Martinez | TKO | 7 (10), | Apr 17, 2004 | |||
| 20 | Win | 20–0 | Ivan Alvarez | TKO | 5 (10), | Mar 19, 2004 | |||
| 19 | Win | 19–0 | Cesar Figueroa | TKO | 6 (10), | Feb 26, 2004 | |||
| 18 | Win | 18–0 | Jesus Salvador Perez | TKO | 1 (10), | Jan 16, 2004 | |||
| 17 | Win | 17–0 | Carlos Duran | TKO | 3 | Nov 20, 2003 | |||
| 16 | Win | 16–0 | Marcos Badillo | KO | 3 (8), | Sep 18, 2003 | |||
| 15 | Win | 15–0 | Francisco Tejedor | TKO | 1 (8), | Aug 28, 2003 | |||
| 14 | Win | 14–0 | Missael Nunez | TKO | 4 (6), | Jul 19, 2003 | |||
| 13 | Win | 13–0 | Trinidad Mendoza | TKO | 2 (10) | Feb 22, 2003 | |||
| 12 | Win | 12–0 | Idelfonso Martinez | TKO | 3 (10) | Aug 17, 2002 | |||
| 11 | Win | 11–0 | Manuel Castro | KO | 1 (10), | Aug 2, 2002 | |||
| 10 | Win | 10–0 | Julio Cesar Avila | TKO | 2 (10) | Jun 29, 2002 | |||
| 9 | Win | 9–0 | Miguel Ramirez | KO | 1 | Feb 23, 2002 | |||
| 8 | Win | 8–0 | Terry Evans | KO | 2 | Dec 15, 2001 | |||
| 7 | Win | 7–0 | Victor Manuel Barreto | KO | 1 (10), | Nov 23, 2001 | |||
| 6 | Win | 6–0 | Diego Andrade | 4 | Nov 2, 2001 | ||||
| 5 | Win | 5–0 | Julio Luna | TKO | 5 (6), | Sep 1, 2001 | |||
| 4 | Win | 4–0 | Jesus Jimenez | TKO | 1 (4), | Jul 21, 2001 | |||
| 3 | Win | 3–0 | Ernesto Rivera | TKO | 3 | May 18, 2001 | |||
| 2 | Win | 2–0 | Victor Rodriguez | TKO | 1 (4) | May 1, 2001 | |||
| 1 | Win | 1–0 | Servando Solis | 1 (10) | Mar 31, 2001 |