When Kenneth Llover makes his comeback in a new weight class, don’t expect him to face an ordinary opponent.
“We’ll put him in there with a solid foe at 122 pounds (super-bantamweight),” two-time world champion Gerry Peñalosa said following Llover’s recent heartbreaking loss to Michael Angeletti in their International Boxing Federation (IBF) bantamweight title eliminator in Nagoya.
Llover struggled making 118 pounds and it showed when he quickly faded after three rounds, allowing the rangy American to dominate the second half of the 12-rounder held at the Aichi Sky Expo.
The comeback fight of Llover should happen before the year comes to a close to let the Cavite-bred puncher regain his confidence and head into 2027 with renewed vigor.
Llover was doing fine from rounds one to three but fatigue began eating him up as early as the fourth frame.
Angeletti, on the eve of the fight, observed that his Filipino rival “looks sick and drained.”
And that’s exactly what Llover was as he told his cornermen that he “could not do what he wanted to do” beginning the middle rounds.
“My legs felt weak and I couldn’t move even if I wanted to do something,” he added.
The loss to Angeletti was Llover’s first in 18 fights.
“We are back to the drawing board,” Peñalosa said.
