On Saturday, October 4, 2014, Jhonny Gonzalez (56-8, 47 KOs) defends his WBC Featherweight title against fellow Mexican badass, Jorge Arce (64-7-2, 49 KOs).
The bout will take place in Arce’s backyard of Cancha de Usos Multiples Praderas de Villa, Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico (say that three times fast) and will be televised on beIN Sports Espanol in the United States.
When this fight was officially announced, I immediately thought one thing: Putasos.
Gonzalez and Arce have had lengthy careers and are no strangers to knocking opponents out. In fact, they have a combined 120 wins and a ridiculous 96 KOs between them.
In other words, someone is going down on Saturday night. While both men are certainly in the twilight’s of their careers, we can still expect some fireworks on Saturday night.
A little over a year ago, Gonzalez was being sold as an old, washed up former champion who would simply provide another solid name on the ledger of then champion, Abner Mares.
Photo by Esther Lin
But after less than one round, Mares and the rest of the viewing audience found out that Gonzalez was anything but washed up.
Since that August night at the StubHub Center, which reignited his career, Gonazalez has fought only once, successfully defending his crown against a relatively unknown opponent in Clive Atwell.
Gonzalez didn’t have a difficult time with Atwell by any means, but after a nine month layoff it did take him a while to get warmed up. But with only five months since the Atwell fight, Gonzalez should be ready to go bombs away as early as Round 1–which could spell trouble for “Travieso.”
At 35 years of age, Arce has already retired once after being knocked silly by Nonito Donaire in 2012. But after only 11 months, Arce gave in to his fighting spirit and decided to lace up the gloves once again.
AP Photo – David J. Phillip
Since the loss to the Filipino Flash, Arce was won three consecutive bouts, all by knockout. But none of those opponents can hold a candle to Gonzalez and come Saturday night, it’s do or die for Arce.
As the older and smaller man, Arce has an monumental task in front of him. He must find an effective way to get inside and negate the two inch height advantage that Gonzalez possesses. It won’t be easy when you also factor in the three inch reach advantage and naturally bigger frame that Gonzalez has. One thing is for sure though, if Arce doesn’t make his way inside early on, he’ll get picked off from a distance.
Arce–who is trying to win a world title in a fifth division–should expect some serious heat from Gonzalez and we should find out very early on whether or not he can stand the pressure and punching power of Gonzalez.
According to Dan Rafael of ESPN, Gonzalez is expecting a war with Arce saying, “Arce throws punches right from the opening bell. He is brave and strong. We anticipate a war in the ring because I will not take even one step back.”
For me, it’s hard to erase the memory of the bigger Donaire steamrolling Arce, and I feel that on Saturday night Travieso could be in for the same type of shellacking. Arce will have the hometown crowd in his corner, but on paper, not much else seems to be on his side.
Regardless, we know that both are willing to fight ’til the end and go out on their shield especially in an ever-important nationalistic rivalry. So come Saturday night, make sure you clear your schedule because this fight has all the makings of an all-out battle–for as long as it lasts.
