By Ronnie Nathanielsz

WORLD Boxing Organization bantamweight champion Gerry Peñalosa still hasn’t received the promised contract for his announced title fight with WBO super bantamweight champion Juan Manuel “Juanma” Lopez in a fight which Top Rank promoter Bob Arum said would take place in Puerto Rico on April 22.

Peñalosa’s manager Billy Keane told www.insidesports.ph, Standard Today and Viva Sports that he has received no word whatsoever from Arum. “Lopez will not sign. I don’t know what’s going on. But I know Lopez has not signed.”

Keane said Arum hasn’t been able to get Lopez, who is promoted by Top Rank, to agree on the purse.

He said that based on the present situation, Peñalosa will have to fight the winner of the interim title fight between mandatory bantamweight challenger Eric Morel (40-2, 21 KOs) and former WBO super flyweight champion Fernando Montiel (38-2-1, 28 KOs), or he will be stripped of the 118-pound crown.

The Morel-Montiel interim title fight will take place in Tijuana, Mexico, on March 28.

The failure of Peñalosa to receive his contract for the Lopez fight and the WBO requirement that he must face the winner of the Morel-Montiel fight or be stripped of the title seems to effectively pave the way for his planned March 21 tune-up fight against 22-year-old German Meraz, who was picked by Cotabato Vice Gov. Manny Piñol, who is promoting the big fight card in Cebu, which will be telecast by the giant broadcast network ABS-CBN.

Meraz has a record of 20 wins and 11 losses, with 8 wins coming by way of knockouts. He is an extremely active fighter, who fought no less than 13 times last year and is a tireless warrior, who bucks the odds and is expected to be an ideal opponent for a tune-up fight.

He won his last two fights by stoppage. On Nov. 8, 2008, he scored a fifth-round TKO over Juan Chabelas and in a rematch on Dec. 13 won by a fourth-round TKO.