Jhonny "Raton (The Mouse)" González Vera

He is in action tonight on the undercard of the vacant super flyweight WBC silver title bout between Oscar Ibarra and Carlos Melo.

He's in with Aristides Perez, over whom he is favored at - wait for it - 1/250 by bet365.com...yes, 1/250. atsch

Perez was stopped in both of his two previous steps up in class, by Humerto Soto and then Eduardo Escobedo (on cuts).

This is essentially Jhonny's fourth consecutive confidence-builder after being brutally knocked out by Japanese punching phenom Toshiaki Nishioka in spring of 2009.

I've been a fan of Gonzalez since 2006, a dynamic year for the lanky Mexican boxer-puncher where he followed two good showings against ranked but faded Mark "2 Sharp" Johnson and a prime Fernando Montiel (a couple of years before Montiel turned heads in his thrashing of Martin Castillo) with a memorable toe-to-toe war with a still-fearsome, pre-trilogy Israel Vazquez.

Unfortunately it's been a rocky road since 2006 for the once-celebrated two-time WBO bantamweight champion, with pedestrian wins sandwiched between knockout losses.

Does he have enough left to make one more run at a title in his new division (featherweight)? Are there any other optimistic Jhonny fans in the house?

 

I would wager he hasn't been quite the same since earlier than Penalosa...specifically, since 2006 as stated above.

He's still a game and disciplined contender, however - and isn't so shot that his experience couldn't maybe see him through to a paper belt. He just needs to avoid anyone that's going to test his chin, like Lopez or Marquez...or even Daniel Ponce De Leon, now that he's learned to sublimate his raw power with fundamental boxing skills.

I'd give González a fairly good chance against the shopworn Chris John, actually. This version of him is at least as good as the current Juarez (who's simply a slower version of the same old no-urgency Juarez but was still able to give John fits the first time around...and hurt him late in the rematch despite losing more clearly).

 

Only if you get Mexico Azteca (aka TV Azteca in the US).

 

That's encouraging. Jhonny has stopped those he's supposed to stop on the comeback trail, and early: five victims have collectively seen only eleven rounds. :good

 

Good call; against Vazquez and Penalosa at those stages of their careers, he easily could have won at least 5 in a series of 10 bouts.

The Nishioka KO is very similar to Hasegawa's loss to Montiel - where a big puncher gets the right opportunity to dispose of the overall better boxer and seizes it.

Apparently he is the mandatory for WBC champion Elio Rojas, so that could be his next date if Rojas wins his unification with WBA champion Yuriorkis Gamboa on September 11th. If Rojas loses, we could indeed see Gonzalez vs. Gamboa. Now would be the time where Gonzalez might have a chance there, before his age and battle scars start to catch up with him and Gamboa primes out (right now I think Yuriorkis is still at least a year or two away from peaking).

 

Matched tough for the first time in a while, Gonzalez seized the IBO featherweight title from "Action" Jackson Asiku with a stunning sixth round knockout!

It was actually a TKO, courtesy of Kenny Bayless, but I say knockout because Asiku was out on his feet with only the ring post propping him up, and he'd been knocked down several times already.

Jhonny is a great finisher. He first had Asiku hurt midway through the 4th, but the Ugandan-Australian proved to be a resilient and crafty quarry. Instead of punching himself totally out, Gonzalez threw only when in position to land and held back when Asiku fled or (less frequently) hugged, and mixed in right hands when there were openings while still maintaining his focus on landing - not just throwing - the left hook upstairs, with great technique and timing. Being a great finisher sometimes means taking a round or two with surgical precision rather than just going for immediate butchery.

Gonzalez stands a good chance of putting any featherweight in hot water - Gamboa, Lopez, Marquez, John, etc. - if he can plant one of those hooks at him from his preferred gamut with a clear landing strip. :deal That's a big "if", of course.

 

Seven years later and González is going fuerte.

A week ago on Televisa Deportes he iced unbeaten (21-0-1) Filipino prospect Jessie Cris Rosales in five minutes flat. This extends his current streak to 6-0 (5) dating to his questionable majority decision loss to Jonathan Oquendo in 2015 on the Mayweather vs. Berto main PPV undercard. Replace the inexplicable 98-90 card from Robert Hoyle in Oquendo's favor with a deservedly close but clear adjudication for Jhonny, and he'd be 8-0 (6) ever since he last tasted legitimate defeat at the hands of Gary Russell Jr., in his most recent world title bout, wherein he was deposed as the incumbent WBC featherweight champ. Before that he was enjoying a very nice & unexpected career renaissance, going 17-1 (14) including two reigns with the green belt at 126lbs after Toshiaki Nishioka put him to sleep in 2009 - fractured only by a competitive technical decision loss to Daniel Ponce De Leon.

To recap: when this very thread was bumped last, fans were feeling nostalgic for the glory days of González in 2006 - now eleven years ago - while hoping that he could pull off another performance or two before spiraling into "completely shot" territory. Instead he is 24-3 (20) and has in this decade gone from a single WBO reign at bantam to a two division, 3x world champion.

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He called out Miguel Ángel Berchelt, the reigning WBC champ at 130lbs, after obliterating Rosales with a vicious left hook on the solar plexus. El Raton entered that bout ranked #5 at super feather by the WBC. Unless he is selected for a voluntary defense he'll need to slug it out with Orlando Salido, Tevin Farmer, or Francisco Vargas to get a mandatory shot. (they were ranked #2-4 as of the July 7th publication of the WBC rankings, with Takashi Miura as the number one contender before he challenged Berchelt on the fifteenth and lost via UD)

Any of those four match-ups are guaranteed entertainment, and not unwinnable for the longtime veteran who still has the kick of a mule and still looks sharp enough for being 35yo.

 

González vs. Salido is 50-50, and Vargas & Berchelt would be favorites but Jhonny would have a puncher's chance if he landed big first. American Idol probably outpoints him, but again, one single big shot from Jhonny can spell doom for anybody so he's dangerous for all no matter how good their defense & chin.