Gonzalez defeats Arce

By T.Baker - 10/06/2014 - Comments

We may have seen the end of 35-year-old Jorge Arce (64-8, 49 KOs) last Saturday night in his 11th round knockout loss to WBC featherweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez (57-8, 48 KOs) at the Centro de Usos Multiples, Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico. Arce was knocked down three times in the fight.

The referee stopped the fight in the 11th with Arce still on his feet but no longer even making an effort to fight back. Arce was moving in circles and looking like he was just wanted to survive until the final belt.

Gonzalez fought like he was taking it easy on Arce for most of the fight. Rarely did Gonzalez step it up, and each time he did, Arce wound up on the canvas.

Arce had bulked up in moving up in weight to featherweight, but all the muscle had gone to his upper body and his physique looked strange. He was completely top heavy with muscle, but without the power needed to compete against Gonzalez. Arce was punching like a light flyweight instead of a featherweight, and he simply had no chance.

Arce was cut over his left eye in the 3rd, and knocked down by a left hand from Gonzalez. Arce was knocked down again in the 5th and the 9th rounds. After the knockdown in the 9th, Arce went completely into the survival mode and rarely threw punches until the referee finally halted the fight in the 11th.

You can make a strong argument that Arce didn’t deserve a world title shot against Gonzalez in the first place given the poor opposition Arce had fought since starting his comeback in November of last year. Arce breezed through three weak B level opponents and then was given a title shot without having to face a top tier opponent.

The World Boxing Council gave Arce a high top 10 ranking, but they obviously should have waited until he at least fought one top tier fighter to prove that he deserved a world title shot. If Arce had fought a good contender then it’s quite possible boxing fans would have been spared to ordeal of watching the Gonzalez-Arce mismatch last Saturday, because that was not an entertaining fight.