Yeah, he would probably beat guys like Yarde and maybe Joe Smith. You should turn on his fight with Leterlough.
He had his strengths and limitations - but was a solid Light Heavyweight who stayed around the top for nearly full decade. Fight that put him on the radar was crazy war with Julian Letterlough. He got a shot at Roy Jones soon and wasn't really competitive, but nobody was competitive with Roy at that time. He then beat Glen Johnson - fairly from what I remember, but it's been years since I saw it - and upset Michalczewski in U.S, outboxing him quite comprahansively, in his biggest career win. Michalczewski was already on the slide, getting into wars with lower level fighters like Lakatos and Hall, but it was still impressive win for Gonzalez. In his first defence He took on Zsolt Erdei - who outboxed him fairly easily, exposing his technical flaws and lack of speed. He got himself one more title shot after that - against Clinton Woods. I thought Gonzalez did enough to win in their first fight, so He easily could've been 2 time title holder at 175 - but also both times got right opponent, once it was fading Michalczewski at the right time, then rather weak title-holder in Woods. All-in-all, I think He should probably rank in top 10 of Light Heavyweights from the 2000s. Probably near the bottom, maybe 9-10? Would have to think about it more.
