It looked good for Jhonny Gonzalez after six rounds against Israel Vazquez a year ago in their WBC super bantamweight title fight.
Well ahead, with two knockdowns scored, all Jhonny had to do was stick and move to a points victory or force a late stoppage to win the big Mexican duel. But Vazquez, hardly one to give up on an unlikely cause, changed the script with a pair of crunching rights that had Johnny sagging to the mat and bleeding through the nose.
Despite his massive lead, Jhonny couldn?t keep the super bantam king off him. He was measured in the eighth, battered in the ninth and after a series of lefts and rights, crumpled to a TKO loss in the tenth.
A career-making clinic was turned into one of the fights of the year, and the two men?s careers scattered in opposite directions. While Vazquez went onto become man-in-vogue thanks to his back-to-back rivalry against Rafael Marquez, Gonzalez would be put firmly back in his place.
Back down at bantamweight, he?s just another fighter in a strong international line-up. In the long run, that may not be a bad thing. While Vazquez adds huge mileage to his body with every war, Jhonny has sensibly gone back to what works for him and can plan for a bright future.
The damage factor seems to be minimal. Still a young man at 25, Jhonny looked good against Irene Pacheco last March, forcing the battered southpaw into a ninth round TKO and extending his record to 34-5 (29 KOs). He still looks strong for his weight, where he towers over all of his peers.
Jhonny puts his WBO crown on the line against Gerry Penalosa (51-6-2, 24 inside) of the Philippines tonight (August 11) at the Arco Arena in Sacramento, California, but has an extra prize to fight for ? the Boxing World Cup that teams Mexico and Philippines will be fighting over.
It will be a tougher assignment than the last one. If Pacheco, a former flyweight king, was in an inarguable decline, Penalosa is an excellent veteran with outstanding timing and punch economy.
Being a terrific veteran will only help him so far. At 35, he?s ten years older than the champion, and at 5?4, he?s nearly four inches shorter. As good as Gerry is at picking and moving, it will be a hard task for the Filipino, who peaked somewhere in the late ?90s.
Surely Jhonny, a patient, methodical boxer, can dominate with jabs from the perimeter and add hurtful hooks when the time is right to take out the old pro?
It may not be as cut-and-dried as the stats ? which also include the fact that Gerry hasn?t won a world title bout in ten years ? suggest. The last time Jhonny took on an expert counter puncher he came close to losing. Against Fernando Montiel on HBO?s Boxing After Dark last year, Gonzalez had trouble pinning down his super flyweight rival and settled for a debatable split decision after twelve tactical rounds.
Though he got the win, it was not a great showcase. If members of the US media were critical of Montiel for not wanting to engage, it was really the bigger Gonzalez?s duty to track him down more efficiently. There could be similar problems tonight.
Montiel, of a similar height to Penalosa, used constant movement and quick countering to catch Jhonny out at times. While Gerry?s much older and never as nimble as Montiel, his shots come from the southpaw stance, making them harder to anticipate.
The parallel between the two goes further. Both of these master boxers have held world titles at 115-pounds ? Montiel is in his second reign as WBO holder, and Penalosa held the WBC version from 1997 to 1998.
While Gerry?s a sympathetic, near fashionable figure at the moment after the competitive (unless you read the judges? scorecards) loss to Daniel Ponce de Leon up at 122-pounds, his lack of workrate has been overlooked amid all the fuss.
Yes, he landed the better punches on de Leon. Yes, he deserved at least four or five rounds. But he didn?t come close to matching the Mexican?s workrate in their match last March. If he can?t lull Gonzalez onto his acute counters, Gerry?s going to have to take the fight to the champion and he may not have enough in the tank to do that at his advanced age.
Gonzalez, despite his height, throws murderous hooks in close, where he will surely outgun his man.
When he uses it, Jhonny has a superb jab ? good enough to keep Vazquez in check for six whole rounds before the fight turned around. If the Mexican finds himself similarly ahead against Penalosa, it?s unlikely that the fight can undergo such a dramatic reversal.
