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.
Jhonny Gonzalez
Jhonny Gonzalez Destroys Leivi Brea
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.
Gonzalez Stops Pastrana
By Jim Dower: Former WBO bantamweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez (38-6, 32 KOs) had a tougher than expected time defeating former IBF light flyweight champion Mauricio Pastrana (34-9-2, 22 KOs) , stopping him in the 4th round of a scheduled 10-round bout tonight at the Morongo Casino Resort & Spa, in Cabazon, California. Gonzalez, 26, lost the 1st and 3rd rounds, but came on strong suddenly in the 4th and dropped Pastrana with a pair of devastating left hooks to the head. Upon getting up, Pastrano received more of the same, with Gonzalez immediately driving him across the ring with a double left hook to the head. Once having him up against the ropes, Gonzalez buried him with a flurry of hooks to the head, causing the referee to move in and stop the fight at 2:32 of the 4th round.
Gonzalez Stops Ruiz
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.
It was Ruiz, 30, who landed many more shots in the round. Ruiz had lost five of six fights going into last nights’ fight, any many more than that if you were inclined to dig deeper in his career record. In the second round, Ruiz continued to land well with left hands to the head of Gonzalez, while also showing some nifty foot movement.