by Keith Idec
Yoenis Tellez took his time Saturday night time in taking out Johan Gonzalez.
The rising junior middleweight contender from Cuba dropped the Venezuelan veteran as soon as within the sixth spherical and twice within the seventh spherical earlier than their scheduled 10-round combat was stopped at Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando, Florida. Referee Emil Lombardi stopped the motion at 1:57 of the seventh spherical, as quickly as Gonzalez went down to 1 knee after the third knockdown Tellez produced.
Tellez nonetheless has fewer than 10 skilled fights on his document (9-0, 7 KOs), however the assured contender believes he is able to combat the winner of the primary occasion Saturday night time between IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev and former WBO champ Tim Tszyu.
The 24-year-old Tellez advised Prime Video’s Claudia Trejos afterward that he took a affected person strategy to catching Gonzalez with fight-changing punches as a result of he knew his skilled opponent may very well be harmful. Gonzalez has received 89 p.c of his professional bouts by knockout (35-4, 34 KOs) and had misplaced by knockout solely as soon as earlier than Tellez stopped him.
“I knew it was not gonna be straightforward,” Tellez mentioned. “I used to be listening to the directions in my nook and did the very best I might to get the win.”
Tellez’s proper cross prompted Gonzalez to go down to 1 knee with roughly 40 seconds to go within the sixth spherical. Gonzalez obtained up and made it to the seventh spherical, however Tellez capitalized on his momentum and remained unbeaten.
A left hook by Tellez knocked Gonzalez to the seat of his trunks when there was just below 1:40 remaining within the seventh spherical. A staggered Gonzalez tried to face up to that knockdown as effectively, however Tellez drilled him with two extra proper palms that despatched him to the canvas for the third and remaining time.
Within the bout earlier than Tellez’s victory, hard-hitting Venezuelan middleweight Endry Saavedra dropped Cesar Mateo Tapia thrice, however he needed to get off the canvas himself and settled for a 10-round majority attract an action-packed, fast-paced slugfest.
Choose Harold Hunt scored their unbelievable combat 94-92 for Tapia. Judges Michael Ross and Efrain Lebron scored it a draw, 93-93 apiece.
Each boxers expressed curiosity in an instantaneous rematch, although Saavedra (16-1-1, 13 KOs) doesn’t perceive how three knockdowns weren’t sufficient for him to ship Tapia house with the primary loss on his skilled document (17-0-1, 10 KOs).
“I don’t perceive how I can take him down thrice and never get the win,” Saavedra advised Trejos throughout his post-fight interview within the ring.
Tapia was extra diplomatic. He thought their back-and-forth combat “might’ve gone both manner.”
Tapia, a uncommon Mexican-Australian who was born in Tijuana and raised in Sydney, obtained off to a powerful begin within the first two rounds and managed the motion. Saavedra dropped him twice through the third spherical, nonetheless, and appeared on his approach to knocking out an opponent who has sparred tons of of rounds with Tszyu, a pal with whom he shares the identical promoter, No Restrict Boxing.
Tapia withstood that troublesome spherical, obtained again within the combat and landed a proper hand that despatched Saavedra to the seat of his trunks with about 10 seconds to go within the fifth spherical.
Saavedra recovered, regularly landed punches to Tapia’s physique and ultimately made Tapia take a knee with simply over 1:35 to go within the ninth spherical. Tapia answered the depend at eight after Saavedra dropped him for the third time and held sufficient to make it to the ultimate spherical.
Tapia recovered rapidly as effectively and landed a number of proper palms throughout a spirited 10th spherical.
CompuBox credited Saavedra for touchdown 80 extra punches general (208-of-558 to 128-of-387). Saavedra landed 79 extra energy punches based on these unofficial punch stats (183-of-438 to 104-of-216), whereas he related on just one extra jab than Tapia (25-of-120 to 24-of-171).
