By Marcus Richardson: The September 15th pay-per-view card headlined by WBC junior middleweight champion Saul Alvarez vs. Paul Williams just got a little bit better with the addition of a title between WBC featherweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez (52-7, 45 KO’s) and former WBO super bantamweight champion Daniel Ponce De Leon (43-4, 35 KO’s) at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas, Nevada.
The Gonzalez-Ponce De Leon fight is actually a good match-up and arguably one that deserves to be in the main event rather than the still green Alvarez facing a pretty beaten up Williams in what appears to be another safe fight for Alvarez. Gonzalez, 30, has won 12 consecutive fights since being stopped by Toshiako Nishioka in May 2009. Granted, Gonzalez hasn’t faced anyone you could call spectacular during that time, but he did pick up the World Boxing Council featherweight title with a win over then champion Tomas Villa in July of last year, and Gonzalez has defended the title three times against the following challengers Rogers Mtagwa, Roinet Caballero and Elio Rojas. Decent fighters, but no one really a threat to Gonzalez like Ponce De Leon will likely be. Gonzalez does well against fighters with medium to weak power, but he struggles badly when he’s put in with guys that can punch.
Gonzalez has been stopped by Israel Vazquez, Gerry Penalosa and Nishioka. He hasn’t faced a puncher since the loss to Nishioka, and it’s going to be very tough for Gonzalez to get past Ponce De Leon unless he chooses to run from him. He doesn’t have the chin to stand up to Ponce De Leon’s power.
Ponce De Leon, 31, lost his WBO title to a young Juan Manuel Lopez in June 2008. Ponce De Leon then won seven consecutive fights before losing back to back fights against Adrien Broner and Yuriorkis Gamboa. He gave both of those guys a really tough fight and a lot of people believe Ponce De Leon should have been given the decision in the Broner fight. Ponce De Leon has since won his last two fights against Omar Estrella and Eduardo Lazcano.
I see Ponce De Leon beating Gonzalez in a win by the 6th or 7th round. I can’t see it going long because Gonzalez is vulnerable to the body and head.