Results from the Fox Sports Net and wbcboxing.tv shows:
At wbcboxing.tv, Jhonny Gonzalez got himself into the featherweight title picture with a destructive 2nd round knockout of Antonio Davis. Neither man had done anything to deserve to be in this WBC title eliminator — Davis lost his last fight a year ago by knockout to Humberto Soto, Gonzalez put together two meaningless wins following a knockout loss last year to Toshiaki Nishioka — but Gonzalez is now in line for a shot at Elio Rojas’ belt. Davis looked decent early, aggressively stalking Gonzalez. Then Gonzalez, after getting cut (couldn’t tell if it was a head butt; the broadcasters spoke Spanish and I didn’t, and there was no replay) wobbled Davis and began unloading. Davis survived the round, but looked in bad shape. In the 2nd, Gonzalez put Davis down with an uppercut, then once more with a hook. Davis fought off Gonzalez for a little while after the second knockdown, but he was bloodied The brutal final flurry — a left hook, straight right, left hook combo — put Davis down for good. From the replay, you can see that Davis was unconscious after the second shot, but the referee couldn’t get in there quite fast enough. The fight was too short to give a sense of whether Gonzalez could hang with Rojas, but it must be noted Gonzalez has three KO losses on his record in less than four years.
On a weird Fox Sports Net card, heavyweight Carl Drumond quit against former amateur Cuban standout Odlanier Solis. Solis controlled the one-sided bout, pressing forward against the reluctant Drumond for three rounds. Toward the end of the 3rd, Solis put a quick, powerful combination or two on Drumond, staggering him a little. That said, it was totally surprising to see Drumond quit between rounds. Drumond was ticked he had to rewrap his hands, prompting a long delay before the main event, and mentally never seemed interested the fight; there was talk that his purse would be withheld for what amounted to a non-effort. That said, best win on paper of Solis’ career. He’s got talent, obviously — speed, power, technique — but despite being in the running at one point for a summer battle with Vitali Klitschko he’d just be more chum for a Klitschko brother at this point, and probably forever, especially if he keeps coming in so plump. (Among the other weird things on the card: 1. Junior featherweight Jorge Diaz dominated Alejandro Lopez for two rounds, knocking him down in both, then seemingly suffered a broken nose in the 3rd and went from fighting like a bulldog who had his favorite squeak toy in his mouth to fighting like he wasn’t interested. The judges unfortunately gave Diaz a unanimous eight-round decision I don’t think he deserved — Lopez outboxed him for the last six rounds. 2. Carlos Rodriguez cup got broken during a fight, forcing his trunks to be removed and the cup to be taped to his underpants. When he came back, he switched to a comical left-handed karate-like stance. Junior middleweight prospect Glen Tapia got the win when Rodriguez’ corner stopped it after three.)
