On Monday, September 29, 2014, Golden Boy Promotions held another Golden Boy Live card on Fox Sports 1 and Fox Deportes.
The televised triple-header featured Ricardo Alvarez vs. John Michael Johnson, Fidel Maldonado Jr. vs. Nelson Lara, and was headlined by Joseph “Jo Jo” Diaz Jr vs. Raul Hidalgo.
The night started off with the 46 year old Johnson (31-10, 23 KOs) taking on Alvarez (24-3-3, 13 KOs) in an eight-round bout.
Johnson, whose career includes over a decade of inactivity, started off slow as Alvarez moved around the ring sparingly working his jab.
Alvarez, the brother of Mexican superstar Canelo Alvarez, didn’t land anything of note in Round 1, but was certainly the more active fighter.
Thompson came out a lot more confident in Round’s 2 and 3 as he began walking Alvarez down. There wasn’t much in the form of offense for Johnson in Round 2, but in the third stanza he began to unload some shots while Alvarez laid against the ropes.
Johnson, who made his pro debut in 1986 when Alvarez was only five years old, continued to stalk his younger opponent in Rounds 4, 5 and 6 with Alvarez usually getting the better of the exchanges but at times getting trapped against the ropes.
Alvarez did his best work in Round 5, digging left hooks to Johnson’s body and moving out of range and avoiding the ropes. Though Johnson clearly lost the fifth, he was comfortable switching to southpaw and even hot dogged multiple times, asking Alvarez to hit him with his best stuff.
Alvarez spent most of the seventh and eighth backing up and laying on the ropes, while Johnson looked 20 years younger and threw multiple combinations.
As the bell sounded to end the fight it looked as though he could have gone another four.
Alvarez’s performance was lackluster at best. He was clocked multiple times with body combinations and overhand rights against a guy that shouldn’t have been able to hang with him.
Judging from Alvarez’s performance against a senior citizen, he shouldn’t get much more television time.
The unanimous decision was awarded to Alvarez with scores of 79-73, 78-74 and 77-75.
The decision was received by cheers and jeers as Alvarez did nothing to improve his status.
First one is done! @DinamitaAB with the win! pic.twitter.com/xz1x804Vuy
— GoldenBoyPromotions (@GoldenBoyBoxing) September 30, 2014
Punch Stats:
Alvarez: Landed 131 of 297 total punches – 33%
Johnson: Landed 97 of 356 total punches – 27%
Records updated
