NAGOYA, Japan — Kenneth Llover left for home on Sunday not a broken man but a changed one.
“This was a tough lesson that he learned,” his chief handler Gerry Peñalosa said while members of Team Llover was getting ready for the short bus ride to the nearby Chubu Centrair Airport.
Peñalosa was of course heartbroken by Llover’s decision loss to Michael Angeletti in their International Boxing Federation (IBF) bantamweight title elimination bout at the Aichi Sky Expo on Saturday.
But he was nonetheless is convinced that Llover is going to come back stronger and tougher.
“He was out of gas starting the fourth round and that only shows what weight reduction to your body,” Peñalosa said.
“He did great in training camp and making weight made all that hard work go down the drain,” he said.
Llover was fine in the first three rounds, landing his signature, Manny Pacquiao-like combinations and even doing the Muhammad Ali shuffle at one point.
But he apparently didn’t notice that his tank had ruptured to the point that Llover was running on empty the rest of the way.
The defeat was his first in 18 fights and Llover swears the Angeletti setback is meant to make him a better fighter when he returns to the ring before the year ends.
For now, it’s back to the drawing board for Llover.
