POST-FIGHT RECAP: GONZALEZ VS. MONTIEL
MATTHYSSE VS. WILLIAMS

May 30, 2006 - by Ron Borges

Fernando Montiel almost had it right after he lost a split decision Saturday night to towering WBO bantamweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez on HBO's Boxing After Dark. Not his approach to his quest for a third world title to be frank but his assessment of what had just transpired at the Home Depot Center in Carson, Calif. That was nearly precise. Emphasis on the word "nearly.''

"It was a technical fight,'' the outgunned WBO junior bantamweight champion said when asked about his apparent lack of aggressiveness from the opening bell to the final few seconds of those four or five rounds when he actually went after Gonzalez with the kind of zeal one expects from a title challenger.

According to the oft-voiced displeasure of the 2,952 who attended the match expecting a brawl between two Aztec warriors from Mexico, it was, however, only technically a fight. That, as the crowd kept letting him and Gonzalez know, is a more than subtle distinction between one idea and quite another.

The crowd wanted a war, as it often does, but instead got a cautious exhibition of movement and retreat from the 5-foot-4 Montiel, who was nearly four inches shorter and faced a serious reach disadvantage of at least four inches that he could never overcome. For his part, Gonzalez tried to come forward and wing punches, hoping to land the kind of mind-numbing combination that might slow Montiel's retreat long enough to allow him to inflict some serious damage on him, but he failed miserably at it most of the night, only occasionally forcing him to engage in the kind of hand-to-hand combat fans not being hit by those hands so often favor.

Gonzalez was never able to accomplish what he most wanted and as he pursued the ever elusive Montiel with less and less reason to hope he might catch him, the crowd began to vocalize it's displeasure with booing at the end of each round. They had pretty much the same reaction when they heard the scorecard of judge Marty Denkin, who somehow managed to have Montiel winning, 115-113. That circumstance was mitigated by the two other judges, who more accurately had Gonzalez (33-4, 28 KO) on top by scores of118-111 and 116-112. Those scores at least bore some resemblance to what had happened in what might well be Gonzalez's final fight at 118 pounds unless IBF champion Rafael Marquez can be lured into a unification fight with him. What seems just as certain is the 5-4 Montiel will likely return to the junior bantamweight (115 pound) division and try to pick on some one his own size.

"I think the boos were for Montiel because he was running around too much,'' Gonzalez said. "I should have done a little more but my opponent didn't give me the opportunity to fight. I thought it was close but I felt I did enough to win. He would land a few punches but when I would hit him I could sense him backing up.''

For most of the fight that's what Montiel did, trying to avoid the kind of engagement with the bigger man that would be his undoing. Montiel (32-2-1, 24 KO) was well aware that Gonzalez had registered knockout victories in eight of his last nine fights and had no interest in adding to that streak or of putting himself in the kind of situation to make it possible because risk for the reward of a third world title is one thing but utter foolishness is quite another.

"Obviously the people probably didn't like it because it was a technical fight,'' Montiel rationalized when asked about the crowd's hooting. "But I had to go in there and try and deal with Jhonny. I knew I had to keep my distance. I thought I did very well at that weight.''

At 5-4 and with shorter arms that was not easy but Montiel did it by employing constant movement, both side to side and in retreat. Refusing to very often set his feet and fire, he thus made it near impossible for Gonzalez to corner him but also made it equally difficult for a fight to break out.

Regardless, Montiel will retain his WBO junior bantamweight title while Gonzalez said it was likely the last time he would defend the bantamweight championship he holds because of his constant struggle to make the 118-pound limit. The only thing that might change that would be if Marquez agrees to face him in what would be a marquee fight in that division.

Golden Boy Promotions, which handles both Gonzalez and Montiel, has been trying to make that fight for some time and matchmaker Eric Gomez said he intends to keep trying. But if he can't strike a deal with Marquez's handlers it is unlikely Gonzalez would again put himself through the rigors of getting down to the bantamweight limit because that is not where the money is for him if he's not doing it to get a shot at the highly-respected Marquez.

"Johnny's been wanting that guy (Marquez) for a while,'' Gomez said before the fight. "That's the guy. No question. Can we get him in the ring? I don't know.''

What the boxing world does know is if Marquez agrees to a unification fight that keeps Gonzalez from moving up to 122 pounds it would not only be a big fight for the little men but also one more in keeping with the kind of roughhousing Mexican fight fans cherish. Marquez and Gonzalez are guys who come to do more than slip, slide and survive. They come to bang, something Montiel knew would be unwise against his larger opponent.

And frankly, neither the former or the latter comes as a surprise to Gonzalez, who got Saturday night pretty much what he expected - a frustrating victory against a sly but cautious opponent.

"I knew it wouldn't be a knockout,'' Gonzalez admitted after the decision was announced. "He's a great fighter.''

Gonzalez is only 24 and his handlers believe the brightest part of his future remains ahead of him. At nearly 5-8 and with an unusually long reach for a bantamweight of 71 inches, the plan is for him to either get one last big payday against Marquez in an effort to unify the bantamweight titles or move up to first 122 pounds and then eventually on to 126 in hopes of replacing as an icon aging Marco Antonio Barrera, who struggled a week ago in winning a very close decision from young Rocky Juarez.

"You haven't seen the best Jhonny Gonzalez,'' claimed his manager, Oswaldo Kuchie.

Kuchie has been in discussions with Golden Boy about that and about moving Gonzalez up to 122 pounds for a time before he grows into a full fledged 126 pounder ready to replace Barrera about the time the legendary Mexican champion is ready to retire. Certainly that is a stretch considering that Barrera is one of the best fighters ever to come out of Mexico but Gonzalez is young, improving and owns a deceptive record because two of his four losses came in his first two fights as a professional and the other two were in consecutive battles with Ricardo Vargas at a time when Gonzalez was not ready to face that kind of experienced and battle-hardened challenge.

He has won 19 straight since those back-to-back losses to Vargas and world titles in two weight classes, a resume that is not yet the equal of Barrera's but is something to build a name on. He would also hold a significant reach advantage against many of the top fighters in the weight classes immediately above him, including guys like Manny Pacquiao and Barrera. In fact, his 71-inch reach is so freakish for a man his size that it is only three inches less than recently dethroned IBF HEAVYWEIGHT champion Chris Byrd.

Unless Marquez finally agrees to accept Gonzalez's challenge then, he will almost certainly move up to the junior featherweight division and later into a full-fledged featherweight and perhaps even eventually a junior lightweight. For now, though, he will have to be satisfied with having successfully defended his bantamweight title in something that was technically a fight but not much more than that.

What he has to hope is that Rafael Marquez will look at that fight the same way those fans did - unimpressed. If he does he may, perhaps mistakenly, conclude Jhonny Gonzalez is ripe to be taken and step up to meet him. If he does, Jhonny Gonzalez will be where he wasn't Saturday night. He'll be in the kind of fight next time that causes crowds to make noise of a different sort than he heard in an outdoor arena in California last Saturday night.