By Manuel Perez: Former World Boxing Organization bantamweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez (40-6, 34 KOs), now fighting as a super bantamweight, totally destroyed Colombian Reynaldo Lopez (30-6-2, 21 KOs) on Friday night, taking him out in the 4th round of a scheduled 10-round bout at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, in Cabazon, California.
Gonzalez, 27, tagged Lopez with a big sweeping left hook in the 4th, snapping his head back violently. Gonzalez then landed a left-right combination and then another big left hook to the head to send Lopez to the canvas on his hands and knees. Referee David Mendoza then counted Lopez out at 2:17 of the round.
Gonzalez, 5’7″, making his sixth fight since losing his WBO bantamweight title in a 7th round TKO loss to Gerry Penalosa in September 2007, had little trouble with the shorter 5’5″ Lopez, hitting him with big left hooks to the body in the first round.
The round was pretty slow, with Lopez throwing a lot of jabs most of which were picked off by Gonzalez. Notorious for his slow starts, Gonzalez did little in the round until the final seconds when he opened up with a brief flurry of shots, nailing Lopez to the head with hooks and shots to the body.
Lopez, who in May stopped top super bantamweight contender Mike Oliver in a 3rd round TKO, found himself unable to land punches in the 2nd round, most of his shots getting blocked by Gonzalez. A hard puncher, Lopez seemed to have problems getting in punching range against the taller Gonzalez in the early going.
In the 3rd round, Gonzalez came out firing hard, throwing lots of uppercuts and hitting an out-manned Lopez with flurries. A short while into the round, after eating a lot of big uppercuts from Gonzalez, Lopez’s right eye was cut underneath. Seeing the blood, Gonzalez went after him with venom, blasting him with big shots.
The two bumped into each other while Gonzalez was punishing him against the ropes, causing Lopez to fall to the canvas where he lay down for a considerable amount of time before getting up. For the remainder of the round, Gonzalez hit Lopez with a lot of uppercuts to the head and sending him into full retreat.
In the 4th round, it was all Gonzalez as he followed Lopez around the ring punishing him with hooks to the head and body. Lopez, for his part, threw a lot of punches but continued to have problems landing, with most of his shots being blocked on the gloves by Gonzalez.
The end finally came when Gonzalez hit Lopez with a stunning left hook to the head, causing him to back up several steps. Gonzalez followed it up with a left-right and then another big left hook that sent Lopez down to the canvas. Lopez made it to his feet at the count of six, but the referee stopped the bout anyway after seeing that Lopez was too hurt to continue.