@ Bantamweight. Between 2 Mexican warriors, both who are skilled technicians with a huge punch but with a leaky defense and shaky chins, who do you think takes this? Surprised this matchup was never made, both did fight Israel Vazquez in a title fight.
Rafael got caught up in the Vazquez series for about two years and then Jhonny was with Nacho. I know Rafa split but it just was never a likely bout. Rafael would have KO’d him. Jhonny didn’t have great recovery powers. Rafa could outbox him then take him out.
Two guys I really enjoyed watching. In fact I think these two were close to matching up when they were close to fighting until Jhonny got stopped by a miraculous liver punch from another one of my favorites, Gerry Penalosa. It was on a Mexico vs. the Philipines card on HBO Latino I think. It was a dope night of fights all around. 2007 I think. Although Jhonny had lost to Israel Vasquez a few fights earlier, it was a Foreman vs. Lyle type fight with something like 5 or 6 combined knockdowns, two broken noses, and a dozen stiches after it ended in the 10th round. It was a loss where Jhonny's stock actually went up. He'd previously beaten Montiel, 'Too Sharp' Johnson, and Irene Pachecho and a few other good fighters. But again, the Penalosa loss cooled Jhonny's stock off and I think Marquez and Vasquez evened up their rivalry at 1-1 shortly thereafter so the fight with Rafa and Gonzalez was pretty much shelved. Too bad. More on Jhonny Gonzalez. He was always a guy who was great at pulling it together after an apparently career ending loss. After losing to Penalosa he quietly rebounded with some solid wins but then was brutally kayoed by Nishioka, after putting Nishioka on the floor. It kind of looked like he was done but then he notched several more victories before the BIG victory over Hasagawa. Another highlight was obviously when he basically decapitated Abner Mares in one round. Around the time Gonzalez beat Mares the word on the street was that he (Gonzalez) was having some pretty serious injuries that were basically chronic at that point, and even more alarmingly, there were rumors that his vision had seriously deteriorated to the point that he would be virtually impossible to license in any location that had a legit commission. The point is, when he got shredded by young Gary Russell, I'd figured that was kind of the end for Gonzalez. But he's 9-2 since then, with his most recent fight in October 2018.
Rafael's career was much more straight forward than Jhonny's. From the time he beat Too Sharp until the end of the end of the Vasquez series he was a killing machine. His durability was an issue and so was stamina but his precision and power were breath taking when his offense snapped into gear.
