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The battle of Mexico turned out to be the battered of Mexico.
One-sided
In one of the bigger fights held in Mexico, featherweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez dominated countryman and former four division titleist Jorge Arce before knocking him out in the 11th round of their WBC featherweight title bout in Arce’s hometown of Los Mochis, Mexico on Saturday night.
Defending for the second time the title he won from Abner Mares in August 2013, Gonzalez had Arce at his disposal throughout the fight. He was taller, rangier and was definitely much stronger than the 35-year old Arce who looked like he was all washed up.
Three knockdowns
Gonzalez landed hard left hooks at will and cut the bridge of Arce’s nose in the second round. Things got worse for “Travieso” in round three as Gonzalez opened a bad cut on Arce’s left eye. With both cuts affecting Arce, Gonzalez scored his first knockdown in round three although Arce was quick to beat the count.
In the fifth, Arce stunned Gonzalez with a powerful left hook and had the champion backing up to the delight of the hometown crowd. But as Arce got some confidence going, Gonzalez shut him down with another knockdown with 15 seconds left in round five. That did not stop Arce from asking for a brawl in the next rounds, to which the champion obliged. Midway in the ninth round, Gonzalez dropped Arce for a third time with another powerful left hook.
Size and Strength Advantage
Gonzalez had predicted before the bout that he would dominate with his size and reach advantage. He was correct, although he did not mention the obvious difference in punching power.
Arce had nothing to show against Gonzalez, and the champion won every single round and virtually all the punch exchanges. It was a much better performance for Gonzalez who in his first title defense earlier this year, struggled to a 10 round technical decision win over the unknown Clive Atwell of Guyana.
Time to hang ‘em up
Arce had won world titles in the Super Bantamweight, Bantamweight, Super Flyweight and Flyweight divisions. But he never fought at featherweight, much more a world champion like his countryman Gonzalez. Arce’s last big fight was a third round TKO loss to Nonito Donaire in 2012 which was fought at the Super Bantamweight class. He retired for 11 months following that loss and won a comeback fight against the unheralded Jose Carmona last November 2013.
He said the opportunity to win a title in a fifth weight class motivated him to make a comeback. But his loss to Gonzalez should be enough to make him hang up his gloves permanently. The wear and tear of a long hard fought boxing career has certainly taken its toll on Arce’s body, not to mention that he has lost his power and speed in his continued climb at the higher weight limits. Arce certainly has nothing to prove, as along with Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., Juan Manuel Marquez and Erik Morales, he is one of the best boxing champions Mexico has ever produced.
