By Jim Dower: Lightweight prospect Romero Duno (17-1, 14 KOs) had to battle hard to defeat the tough 30-year-old Gilberto ‘Flaco’ Gonzalez (27-5, 22 KOs) by a 10 round unanimous decision on Thursday night at the Fantasy Springs Resort Casino in Indio California.
(Photo credit: Photo Credit: Tom Hogan-Hoganphotos/Golden Boy Promotions)
The judges’ scores were 98-92, 97-93 and 97-93. Boxing News 24 scored it 98-92 for Duno. The Duno vs. Gonzalez fight was televised on ESPN Boxing. It was an entertaining bout from start to finish between two 2nd tier fighters. Both guys gave it their all for the full 10 rounds. Ultimately, the 22-year-old Duno’s youth and punch output was the difference in the fight.
Gonzalez was getting hit way too much for him to win more than 2 rounds at best. Gonzalez did show great recovery ability in the fight and he carried his power late. Gonzalez had the superior punching power, but his work rate wasn’t quite high enough as it needed to be for him to deal Duno his second career defeat. Gonzalez’s right eye began to swell up on him in the 2nd, and it got worse with each round.
Neither fighter was down in the fight. Duno, 22, hurt Gonzalez with a hard right-hand body shot in the 6th, but he gassed out and wasn’t able to put him away. Duno dropped his hands after getting hurt, and he was hit with a lot of head shots from Duno for the remainder of the round. It’s a surprise that Gonzalez made it out of the round because he was getting hit with everything but the kitchen sink from the young 22-year-old Filipino Juno. Gonzalez’s punch resistance helped him make it through the round.
Duno also had the Mexican Gonzalez hurt in the 10th round from a big uppercut that had him holding on for dear life. Like in the 6th, Duno couldn’t finish Gonzalez off due to his stamina problems. Duno’s fighting style was a lot like former eight division world champion Manny Pacquiao, but his stamina and hand speed and nowhere near his. Gonzalez was able to make it out of the 10th largely due to Duno’s stamina issues. Surprisingly, Gonzalez recovered and was able to land some big punches to the head of Duno in the last 30 seconds of the round. Gonzalez’s power looked just as good as it had in the early rounds. What he didn’t have was the work rate.
Duno connected on 213 of 637 shots for a connect percentage of 33. Gonzalez landed 139 of 534 punches for a 26 percent connect percentage.
The taller 5’10” Gonzalez had been trying to box from the outside in rounds 1 through 5 to take advantage of his height and reach advantage over the 5’7” Juno, but he gave up on that idea in round 6 and just stood and slugged with Juno on the inside. Things were going well for Gonzalez until he was hurt by a body shot from Juno midway through. Gonzalez toughed it out to make it through the round, but it was obvious that he was hurt and in pain.
“Gonzalez is a very good fighter with a good chin,” said Romero Duno after the fight. “I got him early, but he’s very tough, so he lasted the whole fight. This was a big fight for the Philippines and everyone was watching. I hope this takes me to bigger and better fights. I’m ready to come back anytime.”
Duno needs to make improvements in his defense and conditioning if he wants to take his career to the next level, because right now he looks like he’s lacking in both of those areas. Duno has already been beaten soundly in the past by prospect Mikhail Alexeev by a one-sided 8 round unanimous decision in May 2016. While Alexeev looks to be a good prospect at super featherweight, his win was more of a case of how flawed Duno is rather than an indication that he’s heading towards world championship honors. Alexeev took advantage of Duno’s poor defense and stamina to pound out an eight round decision.
“I felt I won the fight,” Gonzalez said. “He [Duno] wasn’t really landing shots. Even though he dropped me, I won more rounds just by keeping him at a distance. The headbutts were also a constant problem. Just watch the tape.”
It didn’t look like Gonzalez won. He wasn’t busy enough to get the nod from the judges, and he let Duno outwork him throughout the fight. Gonzalez did land the harder blows, but he was getting hit a lot and getting hurt. Duno appeared to hurt Gonzalez in rounds 2, 6, 8 and 10. While Gonzalez showed good recovery ability, it wasn’t good that he kept getting hurt by Duno.
Duno’s win over Gonzalez wasn’t as good as Mercito Gesta’s one-sided 10 round unanimous decision vicor over him last April or Noe Bolanos’ 5th round knockout victory in December 2010 or Jairo Mercado’s 1st round knockout win. Duno is a good fighter, but he wasn’t able to do as good a job beating Gonzalez as the journeyman Mercado and Bolanos. Dubo’s management should put him in with a top contender at lightweight and see how he does. I’d like to see how Duno does against Teofimo Lopez, Jose Pedraza or Ryan Martin. If he could beat those guys, then he might have a future at lightweight.
For Duno to get to the next level, he’s going to need to improve his stamina and defense, because he won’t beat any of the good lightweights with the way e’s fighting now. He had a hard time enough just beating the journeyman Gonzalez.
Other boxing results on the card:
Oscar Duarte UD 10 Rey “Flash” Perez
Francisco Esparza UD 8 Edgar Cantu
Jaba Khositashvili TKO 2 Fabian Valdes
Raymond Muratalla UD 4 Benjamin Da Cunha