By Chet Mills: Making his fifth appearance since losing his WBO bantamweight championship to Gerry Penalosa last August, Jhonny Gonzalez (39-6, 33 KOs) took out Leivi Brea (16-7-3, 8 KOs) in the 1st round of a scheduled 8-round bout tonight at the Desert Diamond Casino, in Phoenix, Arizona. Gonzalez, 26, ended things with a left to the body of Brea near the end of the round. Referee Robert Ferrara then moved in and halted the bout at 2:47 of the 1st round.
Gonzalez started out slow in the 1st round, jabbing and looking cautious. Brea, from the Dominican Republic, jabbed and circled Gonzalez. Brea attempted to fire off some right hands but they were picked off by the gloves of Gonzalez. Slowly, Gonzalez worked himself in position on the inside and then fired off a big left hook to the body of Brea, knocking him to the canvas. He got up at the count of eight, still in visible pain from the body shot, but referee Robert Ferrara stopped the bout anyway. Brea looked as if he could have continued fighting, but the referee probably didn’t like the pained look in his face and decided against letting him fight on. It’s perhaps a good thing he didn’t allow him to continue fighting, because Gonzalez was just getting warmed up and no doubt would have finished him off with additional body shots.
Former WBO bantamweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez (37-6, 31 KOs) had an easy time with his overmatched opponent Edel Ruiz (29-20-4, 20 KOs), knocking him out in the third round of a scheduled 10-round bout at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, in Cabazon, California on Friday night. Gonzalez, who was making only his third fight since losing his WBO bantamweight title in a 7th round TKO to Gerry Penalosa on August 11th, 2007, dropped Ruiz three times in the third round before the fight was stopped by referee Jose Cobian seconds after the third knockdown in the round. Gonzalez, 27, fought mostly in an unusually reserved style in the first round, throwing very few punches and looking as if he wanted to carry his opponent for a few rounds. In fact, Gonzalez threw next to nothing in the first round landing only a handful of punches.