Gonzales beats Mares in 1st round TKO; Santa Cruz destroys Terrazas

By Boxing News - 08/24/2013 - Comments

06(Photo credit: Naoki Fakuda) By Jim Dower: In a shocking upset, challenger Jhonny Gonzalez (55-8, 47 KO’s) stopped WBC featherweight champion Abner Mares (26-1-1, 14 KO’s) to hand him his first defeat of his career on Saturday night at the at the StubHub Center in Carson, California. Gonzalez knocked Mares down with a powerful left hook with 30 seconds left to go in the 1st round. After Mares got back to his feet, he made the mistake of exchanging with Gonzalez and ended up getting knocked down for a second time this time from a left to the head followed by a right as he was falling down.

The referee Jack Reiss then prevented Mares from getting back to his feet after looking at his eyes and noticing that he was dazed looking.

In the co-feature bout, undefeated former IBF bantamweight champion Leo Santa Cruz (25-0-1, 15 KO’s) totally obliterated WBC super bantamweight champion Victor Terrazas (37-3-1, 21 KO’s) by a 3rd round TKO. Santa Cruz knocked Terrazas down twice in the 3rd round from left hooks to the head.

After the 2nd knockdown, Terrazas complained to the referee that he couldn’t see out of his swollen right eye. The fight was then halted at 2:09 of the round.

Terrazas is a good puncher and a very good fighter. However, he made the fatal mistake of slugging with Santa Cruz on the inside, and he didn’t have the skills to be fighting that kind of fight. Santa Cruz nailed Terrazas with nonstop punches to the body and head, and by the 2nd round, Terrazas’ right eye was almost closed. Terrazas’ corner worked feverishly in between rounds to try and reduce the swelling on his right eye, but it was no use. They were fighting an un-winnable battle.

Terrazas went out for the 3rd round with his right eye almost closed, and he had no defense for Santa Cruz’s left hooks, because he couldn’t see them coming. Soon after the round started, Santa Cruz landed two hard left hooks to Terrazas’ swollen right eye and he immediately went down. After Terrazas got back to his feet, Santa Cruz opened up with another volley of shots that put Terrazas down for the second and final time. After he got back to his feet, you could see that he didn’t want to continue. The referee then asked Terrazas if he wanted to continue fighting, and he said he couldn’t see. The fight was then halted.

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Other boxing results on the card:

Julian Ramirez TKO 1 Abraham Rubio
Antonio Orozco TKO 3 Ivan Hernandez
Joseph Diaz Jr. TKO 3 Noel Mendoza
Dominic Breazeale TKO 5 Lenroy Thomas
Ronald Gavril KO 2 Dave Courchaine
Lanell Bellows UD 4 Leshon Sims



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