By Jim Dower: WBC featherweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez (50-7, 44 KO’s) destroyed 32-year-old fringe contender Rogers Mtagwa (27-15-2, 19 KO’s) by a 2nd round TKO on Thursday night at the Country Coliseum in El Paso, Texas. The entire card was nothing but mismatches from top to bottom unfortunately.

The fight was stopped quickly after Gonzalez, 30, hurt Mtagwa with some hard left hooks and right hands to the head that had Mtagwa looking a little shaken. It’s too bad the referee halted the fight because Mtagwa may have been able to shake it off and come back. He normally has a really strong chin but he wasn’t ready to be blitzed hard the way that Gonzalez did in the 2nd round.

Both guys landed good shots in the 1st round with Mtagwa landing well and looking strong. However, Gonzalez came out throwing heat in the 2nd and he caught Mtagwa with a huge shot that stunned him. He needed to clinch to buy time but failed to and the referee Guadalupe Garcia instead gave Mtagwa a quick hook, halting the bout at 2:15 of the round.

In other action on the card, former super featherweight contender Antonio Escalante (25-4, 16 KO’s) destroyed Pipino Cuevas Jr. (14-8, 12 KO’s) in a 1st round TKO after knocking Cuevas Jr. down. After he got back up, Escalante opened up with a blizzard of shots until the referee halted the fight at 2:08 of the round. For Escalante, this win halts his two fight losing streak. Escalante had been knocked out in his last two fights against Daniel Ponce De Leon in a 3rd round KO and by Alejandro Perez in a 1st round knockout.

Super featherweight Miguel “Mickey” Roman (35-8, 27 KO’s) defeated Antonio Jose Meza (29-12-1, 21 KO’s) in a 1st round knockout, taking him out with a nice hook to the midsection to get the win. The fight was stopped at 2:09 of the round. Roman, 25, was at one time a promising super bantamweight but has lost seven fights in the past four years.