2 years ago today: Jhonny "Bombardero/El Ratón" González Vera vs. Takuya "Onsen" Watanabe

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Aired on Fite TV as the co-main event to Casimero vs. Akaho in South Korea. Possibly the last hurrah for Jhonny, after giving us 82 scintillating performances over the last quarter-century. Fittingly, a war - and close on the scorecards of all observers the night of:

https://www.boxingforum24.com/threa...gonzalez-vs-takuya-watanabe-rbr.696028/page-3

González drops from all the alphabet rankings today, with 365 days of inactivity. He's in with a strong argument for Canastota if he doesn't lace up again - two division champ and 11-5 in world title bouts.

Watanabe hasn't enjoyed much success himself since, but is still trudging on - scheduled to fight this Friday.

 

González's longevity in the sport is crazy, even for somebody with that great KO power equalizer to rely on (famously the last attribute to go).

From the Ricardo Vargas rematch in 2002 until Jonathan Oquendo in 2015, he only lost to absolute cream of the crop...including the late Israel "El Magnífico" Vázquez, "Fearless" Geronimo Peñalosa, Toshiaki Nishioka, Daniel "Tarahumara Warrior" Ponce de León, and "Mister" Gary Russell Junior. Against those five defeats? 44 victories, 37 by stoppage. Quite a few very solid names in there, as well.

All due respect to Watanabe, himself a hard SOB and staple of the Japanese domestic scene for the last seventeen years - but versus a prime Jhonny (let alone versus a prime Jhonny his own size, a natural super feather) he'd be deep underwater in no time.