Career
He currently resides in West Covina, California. Daniel is a Tarahumara Amerindian, raised in the Sierra Madre Occidental mountain range. Out of five brothers he was the only one to survive, due to the harsh conditions and the poverty his tribe lived in.
Ponce de León would then go onto represent Mexico at the 2000 Summer Olympics.
On October 29, 2005 he defeated Sod Kokietgym by unanimous decision, handing Looknongyangtoy his first career loss. 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, Junior.–Ricky Hatton fight. 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 and inched closer to another world title shot by knocking out Puerto Rican, Orlando Cruz.
Daniel defeated Cornelius Lock on May 1, 2010 the undercard of Floyd Mayweather versus Shane Mosley in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Grand Garden Arena on Home Box Office PPV to retain his WBC Latino featherweight title. Featherweight Contention
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.
In a shocker, Daniel Ponce de Leon emerged victorious over WBC featherweight beltholder 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 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Grand. 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.
Professional record.
