Brandon Gonzales vs. Lester Gonzalez, preview
Lester "El Cubanito" Gonzalez of San Diego's Black Tiger Gym. Photo credit: Jim Wyatt
Friday, January 7th, the people of Telefutura’s “Solo Boxeo Tecate” are kicking off their 2011 season with a boxing show in Fairfield, CA. The outside show is being presented by Don Chargin Productions along with Golden Boy Promotions and matchmaker Jorge Marron of Lakeside, CA.
In the main event, they have middleweights; Lester Gonzalez of the Black Tiger Gym on Miramar Road in San Diego scheduled to go eight rounds against the highly touted Brandon Gonzales of Sacramento, CA.
A native of Havana, Cuba, southpaw Lester “El Cubanito” Gonzalez (11-1-1, 6 KOs) is hoping to bounce back after his first loss, an unanimous decision, November 18, 2009 to Chris Chatman of City Boxing in San Diego at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Mission Valley, San Diego. In that fight the 26 year-old Chatman shown to be more athletic and elusive as Gonzalez, the prodding boxer, failed to corner Chatman and began to run out of gas in the later rounds.
Not to defend Gonzalez, but prior to that fight, he was dealing with some back issues which forced him to curtail his early morning five mile runs. As of this past Monday, he was in tiptop shape at 162 pounds and right on target to make the 160 pound catch weight. During his workout he wore a thermal jacket that acted like a sauna. After finishing a fierce workout between 12 to 16 ounces of sweat poured out of that jacket.
Lou Messina, Gonzalez’s coach and co-manager, grinned from ear to ear, “Lester (Gonzalez) has never worked harder. He’s in excellent shape for this fight. You watch, we’re going to pull an upset!”
Brandon "The Flawless" Gonzales has aspirations of becoming the next middleweight world champion.
Born in Portland, Oregon, his 26 year-old opponent, Brandon Gilbert Gonzales (13-0-0, 10 KOs), now makes his home in the state capitol of Sacramento. He’s had his opponents carefully selected up to this point. Of the thirteen opponents he’s faced, 10 were knocked out, not one had a record worth bragging about and only four currently have a winning record. As far as I can tell, Gonzales has never faced a lefty and surely no lefty with Gonzalez’s pedigree. His notoriety is based on how he did as an amateur.
But what about Gonzales’ amateur pedigree: 2004-Golden Gloves Champion, 2005-Number One Ranked Amateur in the U.S., 2005-Fighter of The Year (Awarded by NCBA), 2005-Golden Gloves Regional Champion, 2005-Golden Gloves State Champion, 2005-US Championship Finalist, 2005-Cheo Aponte Tournament Silver medalist in Caugas, Puerto Rico, 2005-USA vs. Mexico Gold Medalist, 2005-USA vs. Korea Silver Medalist, 2005-USA vs. Ireland Silver Medalist, 2006-US Championship Regional Champion, 2006-Golden Gloves Regional Champion, 2007-Top Contender of the Year (Awarded by Nor-Cal Boxing) and February 22, 2007- Pro Debut winner by KO 2:50 in Round One.
Gonzales is not only seven years younger, he has quicker hands, sparred with some of the best boxers on the planet to include Andre Ward, and he’s got the home crowd pulling for him. His usual plan of attack involves working the body until his opponent’s hands start to drop.
Together with his coach Jesse Lopez, Alan Sanchez (right) hasn't given up on his dream of someday becoming a champion. Photo credit: Jim Wyatt
On the undercard, Fairfield’s Alan Sanchez (5-2-1, 2 KOs) gets to fight Christian Favela (28-30-7, 18 KOs). In 2010, Favela fought an incredible 11 times going 3-7-1 and he’s coming off a second round KO victory over Alfredo Valenzuela in October.
Sanchez went 1-1-1 in 2010, winning by TKO over Alberto Morales in March, losing a controversial split decision to Artemio Reyes in June and then in September he knocked top prospect Luis Grajeda off his feet twice and yet ended up with a draw.
Cristian Favela (left) has a history of going the distance. Photo: Jim Wyatt
In most every match, Favela makes his opponents look pedestrian. His style of countering his opponent and then covering up or holding, keeps the punch stats close. Sanchez’s style of being a sharpshooter from the outside is quite different and it’s unlikely he’ll fall prey to Favela’s tactic of trying to keep the fighting in close.
Also on the undercard is Sanchez’s older brother Luis Sanchez (1-4-0) who is scheduled to face Jonathan Garcia (3-0-0, 2 KOs) of Watsonville, Georgia. Garcia best not underestimate Sanchez. Since his debut, Luis Sanchez has faced stiff competition. The current record of the people he’s faced is 18-1-0 with 10 KOs.
Another Fairfield product, featherweight Manuel “Tino” Avila (1-0-0) will take on Salvador Cifuentes (0-1-0) of the Alliance Training Center of Chula Vista. Avila is a former amateur sensation with nearly 50 wins who easily won his first outing against Alexis Hernandez.
Mild-mannered Lamont Williams changes his whole persona come fight time. Photo credit: Jim Wyatt
Also on the schedule is cruiserweight Lamont Williams of Blythe, CA. (2-1-0, 1 KO) scheduled to go up against a heavyweight??? by the name of Hector Martinez of Broderick, CA, (5-4-0, 4 KOs). Martinez, who has had a weight problem in the past, has only fought three times over the last four years, going 1-2.
Shostka, Ukraine’s Ivan Redkach (5-0-0, 4 KOs), now living in Los Angeles, is set to take on Jaime Orrantia (13-28-5, 4 KOs) from Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico in a junior lightweight match. Over a period of four and a half years, Orrantia has won four times. Two of the gentlemen he beat had a combined record of 1 win with 38 losses.
Also mentioned on the fight card is Max Becerra making his debut against Federico Martinez (0-2-0). Martinez was knocked out twice and has yet to get out of the second round. Also mentioned: Okada Takashi making his debut against a boxer to be named.
