Oscar ?Finito? Gonzalez won his last three fights against Hector Velazquez, Adrian Young, and Rico Ramos in a major upset?
Oscar ?Finito? Gonzalez (23-3) won his last three fights against Hector Velazquez (54-18-3), Adrian Young (18-0-1), and former WBA World super bantamweight champion Rico Ramos in a major upset. Ramos, who represented the biggest fight yet in Gonzalez?s career, lost to Gonzalez by an overwhelming unanimous decision on ESPN?s Friday Night Fights.
Last night Gonzalez fought Jesus ?Zurdo de Oro? Galicia (12-7) in Mexico City and was the heavy favorite in a fight billed as a silver belt featherweight title encounter, part of a show called ?Rumble in the Capital.? Galicia was coming off a 12-round defeat to Miguel Marriage last August, but had won or was a contender for several regional titles including the interim WBC Latino bantamweight crown and the WBC UDNBC featherweight title. Moreover, his level of opposite was deceptively strong?but not strong enough to give him much of a chance against the very skilled Gonzalez.
The fight started out as expected as Oscar decked Jesus in the first stanza but failed to close the show. Both fighters then waged a brutal war in the remaining rounds until the heavy favorite Gonzalez gassed and began taking the worse of it. Then, in the tenth, the 33-year-old no longer could handle things and literally fell apart after which he was given oxygen and rushed to a nearby hospital where he was declared brain dead .
Medical officials are awaiting the arrival of his family today before he is officially pronounced dead.
This tragedy comes just a few months after Frankie Leal died from injuries sustained against teak tough Raul Hirales also in Mexico. Curiously, Hirales also holds a razor thin UD win over Gonzales back in December 2012.
The photos of Oscar being carried out in a stretcher are grim and difficult to look at, but at first glance it appears everything that could be done from a medical standpoint was done.
Farewell, warrior.
