JASON PAGARA FACES FORMER WBA SUPER FEATHERWEIGHT TITLE CHALLENGER SANTOS BENAVIDEZ IN US DEBUT
By Ronnie Nathanielsz
PhilBoxing.com
Mon, 14 Sep 2015
WBO No. 2 ranked light welterweight Jason ?El Nino? Pagara faces former WBA super featherweight Interim title challenger Santos Benavidez in ?Pinoy Pride 33? which marks ALA Promotions breakthrough offering at the StubHub Center in Carson, California on October 17.
It's been a tough few weeks for ALA president Michael Aldeguer to sign-up worthy opponents for Jason and his younger brother and undefeated IBF super bantamweight International champion Prince Albert Pagara and undefeated IBF Youth featherweight champion Mark ?Magnifico? Magsayo. But in the end he got the job done.
The 33 year old Santos Benavidez has a record of 25-7-2 with 19 knockouts and is coming off back-to-back wins over Jay Krupp whom he knocked out in the 8th round on June 20 this year after scoring a 1st round TKO over Cody Richard on May 8.
Benavidez had previously lost five fights in a row following his twelve round unanimous decision loss to Costa Rica?s Bryan Vazquez in a battle for the WBA super featherweight interim title on November 3, 2011.
The remarkable aspect of the losses of Benavidez was that they were all against undefeated, top class opponents including current WBO No. 5 Jose Felix Jr, No. 10 Maurice Hooker and No. 11 Amir Imam and Denis Shavikov who is scheduled to fight undefeated Rances Barthelemy for the vacant IBF lightweight title in November.
After burning the wires for days Aldeguer was able to sign up Nicaragua?s 34 year old William ?Chirizo? Gonzalez, a southpaw with an impressive record of 23 knockouts in 27 wins with 5 defeats to face Prince Albert Pagara and undefeated Yardley Suarez of Sinaloa, Mexico who has 8 knockouts in 13 wins to battle unbeaten Mark ?Magnifico? Magsayo in a featherweight bout.
Suarez is coming off a 9th round TKO in a scheduled ten round bout with Juan Beltran last August 14 after beating Adalberto Paredes on June 26.
Gonzalez won the vacant WBA NABA title with a stunning 7th round knockout of Cornelius Lock last May 9, 2014 after scoring a 3rd round TKO over Carlos Rivas in a scheduled eight round bout on March 16, 2013.
Fight News reported that Gonzalez dropped Lock three times in an action-packed main event in Delaware.
Lock who was fresh off am impressive 4th round one-sided stoppage of former USBA title holder Rogers Mtagawa looked confident in the opening round as he buckled the knees of Gonzalez with a counter leftin the opening round but Gonzalez, the heavier handed soon turned aggressor and pushed the attack by digging the body and landing heavy hooks.
However, Gonzalez dropped a majority decision to Joseph Agbeko in an IBF bantamweight title fight on December 11, 2008 and suffered a 3rd round knockout loss to Jhonny Gonzalez in a WBO/NABO bantamweight title fight on September 1, 2005.
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