By Aaron Klein: In an exceptional fight on Wednesday night, super featherweight fringe contender Cornelius Lock (18-3-1, 11 KOs) stopping Roger Gonzalez (27-2, 18 KOs) in the 10th round at the Arco Arena, in Sacramento, California. Both fighters were hurt in the bout, with Gonzalez going down once in the 1st round, and twice in the 10th, while Lock getting hurt with a big left hook in the 7th round. After dominating the first five rounds, Lock had problems in rounds six through eight as Gonzalez, perhaps motivated by the angry crowd that had begun booing loudly during those rounds, began to fight incredibly hard taking the fight to Lock and punishing him with hooks to the head and body.
Lock, however, came back in round nine and landed well, outnumbering Gonzalez’s shots by a significant number. In the 10th round, Lock landed a short right hook a minute into the round, which knocked Gonzalez to the canvas. He got up, badly hurt and received a standing eight count from the referee. As soon as the action resumed, Lock charged after Gonzalez and hit him with a big left hand to the body that toppled him backwards onto the canvas, at which point referee Jon Schorle moved in and called a halt to the bout at 1:27 of the 10th round.
Lock, 29, started well in the first round, using a fast jab to control the action. It was immediately clear that Gonzalez, the much slower fighter, was going to have some problems trying to contend with the fast hands and high work rate of Lock, who was badly out-landing Gonzalez for most of the round. Around halfway through the round, Gonzalez landed a huge right hand that staggered Lock and almost knocked him down. However, Gonzalez, lacking any real aggression at this point in the fight, failed to go over Lock. Moments later, Lock flattened Gonzalez with a left hand to the chin. The round ended shortly after Gonzalez received a standing eight count from the referee.
In rounds two though five, Lock controlled the action mostly with his fast jab and blistering fast right-left combinations to the head and body. Gonzalez continually stalked Lock, putting pressure on him always but not letting his hands go. It seemed like he was almost intimidated by Lock because there were plenty of times that Gonzalez could have thrown some punches but he failed to do so.
In the 6th round, the crowd began to boo loudly, building up the noise as the round progressed. Both fighters, clearly not enjoying being booed, began to fight much harder. In the case of Gonzalez, he looked like a totally different fighter altogether as he was taking Lock’s head of with big shots, mostly powerful hooks. The punches did a lot of damage as Lock’s nose and mouth began to bleed. Gonzalez continued battering Lock without stop in the 7th and 8th rounds. Despite Gonzalez fighting very hard and doing a lot of damage to Lock, the crowd continued to boo like it was no tomorrow.
I suppose they wanted Lock to fight hard as well, but I can hardly blame him for not fighting, because he was running for his life, trying to keep from getting knocked out by the heavy shots from Gonzalez. Lock looked good when he was on the outside earlier in the fight, where he was able to jab from a safe distance, but once Gonzalez started opening up with huge salvos in the 6th round, Lock seemed very uncomfortable with taking the shots. Lock took an especially brutal beating in the 8th round, as well, having to eat a lot of huge shots from Gonzalez. By the end of the round, blood was pouring freely out of Lock’s nose and mouth, and he had a cut over his left eye.
In the 9th round, Lock suddenly came out energized-looking and fighting much harder than he had all fight long. He quickly backed Gonzalez up into a corner, and blasted him with a flurry of fast shots while he attempted to block as many as he could. In the 10th round, both fighters traded big shots in the first minute of the round. However, Lock suddenly landed a short right hook that dropped Gonzalez. The punch looked like nothing, a pretty weak-looking shot from what I saw of it.
Judging by the way Gonzalez dragged himself of the canvas, it might as well have been tremendous shot. He quickly received a standing eight count and the action was resumed. Lock strolled quickly over to Gonzalez and launched a perfect left hook to the body that dropped Gonzalez for the second and final time in the round. The punch, again, looked like nothing but at this point Gonzalez was so hurt that he probably would have gone down again if he was stroked with a feather. The referee then moved in and waived off the fight at 1:27 of the 10th round.
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