Jhonny Gonzalez vs. Roger Mtagwa, live Thursday 9/15/11 on ESPN3.com

:good HH was the furthest thing from a paper champ. Villa and Mtagwa are a fairly respectable first two defenses.

I wouldn't call the belt at all worthless, at least on Jhonny's waist.

 

I'm honestly not sure why Estrada-Marks fell apart. Estrada isn't injured or anything; there is talk of him being featured on the ShoBox card headlined by Chambers vs. Thompson next month. So if all goes well, we should get a good look at him then.

Marks must have pulled out. :conf

 

Lopez wasn't dominating all the way through round nine.

I recall it being an example of one man stronger in the first half and the other taking over in the last half. Of course, being there live is a more visceral experience so I wasn't exactly sitting down with a pencil and paper scoring round by round as when watching on a TV/computer screen in a relaxed environment. I was, like everybody else, up on my toes shaking fists and spilling beer and screaming myself hoarse. That doesn't change the fact that the prevailing mood in the building was that Lopez clearly lost the fight (if not the boxing match). The entire crowd at the MSG Little Theater were not "duped" by just the last quarter of the action into thinking it was close or that Mtagwa probably deserved the nod. I'll concede that those instincts have never been corroborated by watching video to methodically scrutinize and score each round (which usually is my custom) BUT it also must be said that being mere feet away gives one a different perspective for and appreciation of what is going on between the ropes. Long before the 10th round, there were subtle signs of shifting momentum - and they are burned indelibly into my memory. JuanMa's body language down the stretch was of someone having their mile-high confidence steadily eroded down to a millimeter-high nub. He was reacting very badly to Mtagwa connections once it dawned on him (after the first few rounds) that nothing he was dealing out was going to get rid of the guy on the night. This foreshadowed the Salido loss, and I spent a couple of years calling it - that someday someone would fail to bow down and would reawaken the ghosts of the Mtagwa fight to fill him with doubt and lead to his ruin. Hell, Rafa Marquez looked mighty close to doing it in his 4th round rally when they met.

 

Anyway - it's confirmed...

This WILL air on ESPN3.com! :happy

Live @ 8:30pm Eastern :good

 

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The weigh-in is about two hours away. :good

 

It took forever to find updates/pics from the weigh in (several hours :blood) but here we are...

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Gonzalez came in at 125

Mtagwa came in at 124.5


Undercard:

Escalante 133, Cuevas 136

Roman 135, Meza 136

Nobody made weight in either of the super featherweight bouts. :think

 

This is in three hours!

Oh, and forget "¡¡¡Feliz Grito!!!" - this has even deeper personal significance for Jhonny Gonzalez than Mexican independence!

He just turned thirty today!

¡¡¡Feliz Cumpleanos, campeon!!!