Gonzalez-Mtagwa: Before Bright Lights, Blood, Leather

[WelshDevilRob]

Gonzalez-Mtagwa: Before Bright Lights, Blood, Leather

 

Article Link - http://www.boxingscene.com/?m=show&opt=printable&id=43787#ixzz1Y1clpO9S

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by Cliff Rold

 

There’s nothing quite like the week of a major fight, even in 2011. The anticipation might even be more so these days. As boxing has receded from the mainstream of sport over the last two decades, the chances for the game to stand neck and neck with the big boys of athletics in terms of coverage and chatter grow fewer and farther between. Fights like Wladimir Klitschko-David Haye in July, this weekend’s Floyd Mayweather-Victor Ortiz, and November’s Manny Pacquiao-Juan Manuel Marquez III, have to be savored because, once completed, the next event is only a hope, no imminent promise guaranteed.

 

The emergence of U F C on network television is likely to make the struggle for attention even more difficult.

 

Those, though, are the events, the moments fight fans share with co-workers who know few names beyond those already mentioned. The rest of the days, months, years, belong to the fistic world beneath the events. Boxing doesn’t really do smoke-filled halls anymore, has tried in some ways to gloss away that vibe of noir that never goes away.

 

It still makes the fights legend recalls in those shadows, off Broadway, or Las Vegas Boulevard for the sake of modernity, and more often than the credit the sport receives.

 

Plenty of sports fans are waiting for Saturday. Real fight fans have Thursday to look forward to first. At the County Coliseum in El Paso, Texas, capacity somewhere between five and six thousand, a battle will be waged for a WBC Featherweight belt. A pair of battlers with 100 fights between them, 21 of them losses, each of them having been stopped three times, will lock horns in what might end up a sneaky candidate for Fight of the Year.

 

Floyd Mayweather makes it rain. Jhonny Gonzalez and Rogers Mtagwa simply bring the pain.

 

Consider the combatants. The 29-year old beltholder, Gonzalez (49-7, 43 KO) is, even in a too-deep pool of beltholders, a surprising champion. Between September 2006 and May 2009, Gonzalez experienced violent defeats that many a fighter could not have come back from. He had Israel Vazquez down repeatedly only to be overwhelmed and stopped late; was outboxing Gerry Penalosa before a paralyzing body blow; got blitzed out of nowhere by Toshiaki Nishioka after having the Japanese veteran on the deck.

 

Mexico’s Gonzalez, also a former WBO bantamweight titlist and one of the sport’s most active fighters, despite those defeats, has won nine straight since Nishioka. In his two outings this year, he upset Japan’s Hozumi Hasegawa on the road in the fourth and has already made one defense, another fourth round stop of veteran Tomas Villa.

 

Villa knows something about the man Gonzalez will face Thursday night. Villa and the now 32-year old Mtagwa (27-14-2, 19 KO) engaged in a smoke-filled room special in November 2008. A Tanzanian with a fighting spirit fitting for the city he makes his home, Philadelphia, Mtagwa got off the deck in round nine to out Villa away in the tenth round.

 

It was a dramatic, savage affair. So was Mtagwa’s encore. Two fights later, in October 2009, Mtagwa pushed a then undefeated Jr. Featherweight beltholder, Juan Manuel Lopez, to the brink in his first major title opportunity. It was nice to see so honest a fighter get a crack at a belt. Fighters with as many losses as Mtagwa rarely get title shots at all.

 

It could be considered rather amazing then to find Gonzalez being his third title opportunity in four fights. Could be…but shouldn’t.

 

It is by virtue of the way he plies his craft, the way he makes fights with a capital “F,” (and, sure, the right promoter at the right times), that he finds himself with another crack at a brass ring. Since Lopez, Mtagwa has gone only 1-1, the loss coming quickly at the hands of the markedly more gifted Yuriorkis Gamboa in his other title fight, a forgivable defeat. Perhaps the rest kept his legs fresh. The big punching Gonzalez is sure to demand he needs them at some point.

 

Anyone reading should fondly recall the thrillogy between Mickey Ward and the late Arturo Gatti. The recipe there was simple. Ward and Gatti, when matched correctly, made fantastic brawls. What could go wrong with matching them against each other it was wondered?

 

What didn’t go right was the question left in the wake of the carnage they unleashed. Gonzalez-Mtagwa reaching the same level of mayhem is too high a standard to ask for. The question the match produces is similar.

 

What could go wrong in a match this natural?

 

The answers will be had at the bell.

 

Viewing

 

Fans who want to see this battle can catch it on ESPN Deportes or at the former ESPN3, http://espn.go.com/watchespn/ at 8:30 PM EST/5:30 PM PST.

 

Source:

www.boxingscene.com

[iamasadlittleboy]

This is a fight I am oddly excited about :-S

[grapevine241]

im oddly disgusted by it

[littleman370]

im oddly disgusted by it

 

take away the meaningless title aspect, and it should be an action packed fight between two guys who aren't world class

[londoner]

Gonzalez is an elite fighter and should be fighting elite fighters. Mtagwa is far from elite level. Featherweight has the potential to be one of the top divisions in the World but nobody wants to fight each other.

[davemurphy]

Earlier tonight on the Leave It in the Ring Radio Show, Ponce De Leon mentioned the possiblity of facing Jhonny Gonzales if he can't get a Gamboa rematch. I'm not so sure Golden Boy would want to make that fight for him......Gonzalez is high risk/low reward.

[RAZZ-MCFC]

Gonzalez won in 2.

[iamasadlittleboy]

Yeah Mtagwa is done TBH. A case of the Lopez fight ending his title dreams and Gamboa and Gonzalez just proving it. Although he was never the most skilled he was usually a tough old SOB.