Jhonny Gonzalez vs. Jorge Arce on October 4th

By Boxing News - 09/17/2014 - Comments

arce1By Dan Ambrose:
WBC featherweight champion Johnny Gonzalez (56-8, 47 KOs) will be defending his title against 35-year-old #10 WBC Jorge Arce (64-7-2, 49 KOs) in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico on October 4th. It’s a fight that will generate a lot of excitement in Mexico, but it’s very likely to be a huge mismatch due to Arce’s advanced age and with him fighting in a weight class that is not well suited to his small frame.

Arce has the frame of a light flyweight, but he’s moved up in weight over the years by packing muscle on his upper body at the expense of his twig-like legs.

You can make a strong argument that Arce shouldn’t even be getting a world title shot because he’s not faced any quality fighters since his comeback last year. Arce has won his last three fights against Jorge Lacierva, Aldimar Silva Santos and Jose Carmona. These are not quality fighters obviously, and it just looks like Arce had had 3 record padding fights to get ranked by the World Boxing Council.

None of the other sanctioning bodies has Arce ranked in their top 15, likely due to the poor opposition he’s faced since making his comeback. Arce retired in 2012 after getting knocked out in 3 rounds by Nonito Donaire at super bantamweight. Arce looked totally overmatched against Donaire in that fight and was beaten up pretty badly in the 3 rounds. As bad as Arce looked against Donaire, it’s impossible to see him doing well against a fighter that would likely beat Donaire in Gonzalez.

The Arce-Gonzalez fight seems more of a business type of fight rather than actual contest. Arce has the name recognition and popularity from his past accomplishments and they’ve got the storyline already in place with Arce seeking a 5th division world title. But let’s not get things twisted here, Arce is way, way over his head against Gonzalez and he’ll be lucky if he can make it to the 2nd round.

“I will face a strong and experienced fighter, who has won five world titles, so I will prepare as if I am challenging a world champion,” Gonzalez said via Dan Rafael of espn.com. “Arce throws punches right from the opening bell. He is brave and strong. We anticipate a war in the ring because I will not take even one step back.”

Arce should really be fighting at bantamweight because he doesn’t belong at featherweight in my estimation. But even at bantamweight now, I can’t see Arce beating any of the current champions. He’s too up there in age at 35, and he’d likely have major problems if he even fought any of the top 5 contenders, let alone any of the champions.

Gonzalez, 33, has done pretty much zero since capturing the WBC title a year ago in destroying Abner Mares in 1 round. Instead of capitalizing on that victory by taking on a big name, Gonzalez has fought just once in defeating a fringe contender named Clive Atwell by a 10 round technical decision last May. Now Gonzalez is about to fight another fringe contender in 35-year-old Arce. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens to Gonzalez when he’s forced to face his mandatory challenger in 2015, if he does that.



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