BAYONNE, New Jersey – Justin Penaranda had it all his way as a pro – until the one night he didn’t. Through adversity, the unbeaten lightweight learned his most important lesson yet.
Last August, Penaranda was scheduled to fight in Atlantic City, New Jersey, when his opponent withdrew the week of the fight. The only opponent the promoter could find on short notice was Sebastian Ruiz, an experienced MMA pro making his boxing debut who was larger than the tall but lanky Penaranda.
Bobby Rooney Jnr, Penaranda’s trainer and manager, turned down the fight. Penaranda called the promoter himself and said he would take it. Penaranda agreed to move up in weight for the fight, with the contract weight being close to what he walks around at. Though the fighters both weighed in just under 142lbs, Penaranda could see – and feel – the difference once the bell rang.
After four rounds, Penaranda was announced as the winner, only to be informed later that the scorecards were tabulated incorrectly and that the fight was actually a draw.
“I take it as a humbling experience,” recalled Penaranda, 4-0-1 (4 KOs), of Bayonne, New Jersey. “I was the one that called the promoter because I needed the money. And I was like, ‘I’ll take the fight.’”
Instead of being discouraged by matters not going his way, Penaranda took it as a sign that he had to lock in and get more serious about the sport.
“I’m just gonna go out there and fight people with winning records,” he said. “That's what I want to do. I want to show people that I'm really here, because I'm a talented fighter. I've been a national champion. I know what it is to be in there with world champions. I know what it’s like to be in there with the No. 1s in the USA. I know I can hang with them. I want all the best right now.”
That mindset carried him to victory in his previous fight, a second-round knockout of the undefeated Skyler Bray. Now Penaranda is set to return to the ring May 29, when he will face the 4-1 (2 KOs) William Holcomb at the Hard Rock Casino in Atlantic City. The six-round lightweight fight will be part of an R&B Promotions card.
Penaranda says he has seen just 15 seconds of his opponent – and that’s all he needs to see. After his setback, he says just seeing his opponent’s winning record is what guides him to push himself harder in the gym.
“When I fight people that got losing records, or somebody that I know is going to be an easy night, I don't train as hard,” Penaranda said. “But when I got somebody in front of me that's got a winning record that really wants to win, it’s like I want to train hard for this fight. I really want to go for the knockout. He never had been knocked out, and I want to be the first one to do that. So that's motivation for me.”
Long before Penaranda was a prizefighter, he had to fight for his right to box.
Born in Paterson, New Jersey, he and his family moved to Salinas, Puerto Rico, where he was raised until he turned 18. Penaranda picked up boxing at the age of 13, learning from his neighbor, former heavyweight boxer Victor Bisbal, who trained him at the Cholo Espada Boxing Club. Penaranda, whose stepfather was a Pentecostal pastor, was raised in a strict, conservative household where the idea of punching people for sport was considered a bad example for the community. He trained in secret until the day his mother caught him in the boxing gym and proceeded to spank him with the jump rope. After talking it over with Bisbal, she remembered her own childhood rebellion and gave her reluctant blessing.
“She told me that when she was little, she always wanted to dance, but her mom, who was also Pentecostal, never let her dance, so she had to hide it from her mom,” Penaranda said. “She told me, ‘The only reason I'm gonna let you box is because, at one point in my life, I did the same thing. You're not gonna live. If you really want to be a boxer, then go be a boxer.’”
Since then, Penaranda has been doing most of the spanking. Penaranda competed in about 83 amateur bouts, winning two national titles in Puerto Rico – the Copa de Cidra in 2016 and the Copa Cheo Aponte in 2017. Penaranda never let his boxing dream fade, even after moving in 2018 from a boxing hotbed in Puerto Rico to Florida, where he couldn’t find a boxing gym. His father advised him to move back to the state where he was born, where there is no shortage of boxing gyms, and he was able to pick up where he left off.
Penaranda bounced around gyms when he arrived in New Jersey, finding it tough to click with a trainer who believed in him. That’s when he found his home at the Bayonne Recreation Gym, a few minutes’ drive from his home. There, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he linked up with Rooney, a former pro with a 12-3-1 (7 KOs) record who might be better known as the manager for radio personality Beetlejuice of “The Howard Stern Show” fame. Rooney, whose father was Chuck Wepner’s chief sparring partner, gave him the direction he needed to get on track, guiding him to five New Jersey state open class titles as an amateur. Now, as Penaranda moves into six-round fights, Rooney is working on preparing him for the next level of the sport.
“What’s good is that Justin is a puncher – he can punch with both hands. That’s what people want to see,” said Rooney, who says Penaranda brings about 100 fans to each of his fights. “But I don’t want him just relying on that. We’ve been working on more volume, defense, boxing. I don’t want him to feel like he can give rounds away because he has that equalizer. I want him to start a little faster, make guys feel that power sooner before they get comfortable.”
For Penaranda, that love affair with his power is what had motivated him to become a pro.
“I couldn't wait to turn professional because I’ve always been recognized for hitting hard since I was little,” Penaranda said. “I did a lot of good things in the amateurs, but I always was looking for that big punch. I can't wait to touch [my opponents], because I know I’m gonna knock them out. And I feel with the eight-ounce gloves and no headgear, it’s a wrap. I feel like this is where I belong.”
To chase his boxing goals, he continues to travel around the area, going to New York City to spar with established pros Chris Colbert and Sergiy Derevyanchenko, and to Philadelphia to spar with Olympic gold medalist Andy Cruz. He makes ends meet by working weekends as a cashier at a Puerto Rican restaurant, with Rooney envisioning a few more six-round fights before his fighter moves into the eight-round level.
For a long time, Penaranda had to hide his pursuit of boxing from the world. Now he wants to show everyone the results of all the hard work he's putting in.
“There's a lot of things people don't see. They just see the fight,” Penaranda said. “I hear it when they say, ‘Oh, my God, you’re so talented,’ or ‘Bro, you're a fucking monster.’ But I sacrifice for this, and I train for this, and I sacrifice my body. I push my body to the limits.”
Ryan Songalia is a reporter and editor for BoxingScene.com and has written for ESPN, the New York Daily News, Rappler, The Guardian, Vice and The Ring magazine. He holds a Master’s degree in Journalism from the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism and is a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at ryansongalia@gmail.com or on Twitter at @ryansongalia.
