Jhonny Gonzales Wins Arizona Tiff with Pacheco
By Ed de la Vega, DDS
PhilBoxing.com
Sat, 31 Mar 2007
Tucson, Arizona -- WBO bantamweight champion Jhonny Gonzales, the 26 year old fighter from Pachuca, Mexico just moments ago won via a convincing 9th round TKO over Irene Pacheco, a veteran southpaw from Antioquia, Columbia. Pacheco was a former IBF flyweight champion.
Gonzales therefore, kept a firmer hold on his WBO bantamweight title.
The victory in all probability will lead to a fight between Gonzales and Gerry Pe?alosa, the ex-WBC super lightweight champ.
Golden Boy promotions, who promotes Pe?alosa and Gonzales, prefers the Pe?alosa vs. Gonzales instead of a Pe?alosa rematch with Daniel Ponce de Leon. They feel that in spite of the excellent showing of Pe?alosa during his fight with Ponce de Leon, Pe?alosa will do better with Gonzales because weight discrepancy will not be so much as when he fought Ponce de Leon, a natural super bantamweight.
Golden Boy Promotions would like to see the Pe?alosa-Gonzales happen during the proposed “World Cup - Mexico vs. Philippines” at the Cebu Sports Complex or at Araneta Coliseum in Quezon City in July or August of this year.
The Gonzales-Pacheco bout, held at the Desert Diamond Casino in Arizona started rather slow with each fighter feeling each other out. However, towards the end of round 1, Gonzales landed a series of nice combinations to Pacheco’s head.
Round two started with each fighter stalking each other in the middle of the ring. The two fighters exchanged combinations but again it was Gonzales who landed the harder punches as the round ended.
In round 3, Gonzales fell because of a slip. As the fighters mixed it up in the middle of the ring, the referee warned Pacheco about low blows. Pacheco was warned again towards the second minute of the fight for the same infractions. The round ended with Gonzales landing a clean right straight.
In the middle of round 4, Gonzales landed clean right-left straights that rocked Pacheco towards the ropes. He also landed another right that almost turned Pacheco around. Those were about the best punches landed by either fighter in this round.
Ten seconds into round 5, both fighters were warned to raise their punches. Pacheco landed a clean left but absorbed a counter right that rocked him again. Pacheco seem to be responding to his corner to throw more punches. He did, but few landed.
With his corner prodding him to throw more, Pacheco began to respond and was more active in round 6 than Gonzales. He won the round by virtue of the number of punches he threw. Although he landed more frequently, Gonzales did not appear to have any trouble taking them in. This was Pacheco’s only round.
In the early part of the 7th, Gonzales caught Pacheco on the ropes and threw a series of punches that clearly rocked Pacheco. However, Pacheco was able to survive the round in spite of being caught again on the ropes as the round ended. To observers like us, after that series of unanswered punches, the end for Pacheco became inevitable.
Round 8 started with Gonzales appearing to have solved the style of Pacheco. His jabs and combinations are landing more frequently making Pacheco back track. Towards the end of the round Gonzales caught Pacheco with a solid right hand that backed him up the corner where he landed five more solid lefts and rights as the round end.
Round nine started with Gonzales now stalking the back tracking Pacheco. A series of eight unanswered lefts to the body and a couple of strong rights to the chin backed Pacheco to the ropes. Another solid right almost pushed him through the ropes. Had Pacheco not gotten hold of the ropes he would have gone through them, The ref at this point stepped in and declared the fight over. The fight ended for Pacheco at 1:04 of the 9th round..
With Gonzales’ impressive victory, his record went up to 34-5-0 (29KO) while Pacheco dropped to 32-3-0 (23KO).
Click here to view a list of other articles written by Ed de la Vega, DDS.
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