By Cliff Rold

The son of a former featherweight titlist, 22-year old bantamweight Alejandro Gonzalez Jr. (25-3-2, 15 KO) of Tijuana, Mexico, showed real promise in July, dropping IBF 122 lb. titlist Carl Frampton twice in round one before losing a competitive decision. On the strength of that defeat, Gonzalez entered the ring Tuesday night with the spotlight there for the taking. Again he scored a knockdown in the first round.

Again, Gonzalez left in defeat.

28-year old Karim Guerfi (23-3, 6 KO) of Manosque, Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, France, rose from a nasty knockdown in the first to win a unanimous decision over Gonzalez on Tuesday night at the Music Hall in Austin, Texas. It was Guerfi’s third straight win and he celebrated full throated after a smart, gutsy showing that turned early turmoil into a clinic down the stretch.

Guerfi came into the fight at 118 ½, Gonzalez at 118. The referee was Jon Schorle. 

Gonzalez got off to a big start in the first, dropping Guerfi with a booming body shot. Collecting himself, Guerfi beat the count and started to move his hands, unwilling to go easily. Relying on an evident edge in hand speed, Guerfi had a solid second round, getting off in combination while Gonzalez pressed with heavier hands.

The next two rounds saw the fight seem to shift in Guerfi’s favor, countering when Gonzalez missed and regularly beating him to the target. By the sixth, a noisy contingent was chanting “Cobrita” at Gonzalez, trying to will their man to get something going as Guerfi kept extending his advantage.

By the ninth, it was almost one sided. Guerfi hurt Gonzalez to the body late in the round but Gonzalez covered up well and didn’t appear ready to fall. With three minutes to go, it appeared Gonzalez was about to let another big start dissolve into disappointment.

There was no save in the final round. Pursuing in the tenth, Gonzalez found Guerfi a hard target and replays after the fight showed an ungloved Gonzalez with a swollen right hand. He’d hurt the same hand against Frampton and didn’t do much with it down the stretch here. The final scores came in at 97-92, 96-93, and a far too close 95-94, all for Guerfi.

Gonzalez came into the bout on the fringes of the ratings at bantamweight for the WBC and WBA. With two straight losses, Gonzalez will be hard pressed to maintain that position.

Guerfi hasn’t lost since a fifth round stoppage at the hands of Kazakh bantamweight Zhanat Zhakiyanov. Zhakiyanov has since gone on to win an interim WBA title in the division.

Jr. lightweight action drew boos from a crowd in love with the underdog. The judges still got it right. 20-year old Mario Barrios (13-0, 7 KO), 130, of San Antonio, Texas, had his hands full for all of eight rounds but left the ring with a unanimous decision over game 25-year old Enrique Tinoco (15-2-3, 11 KO), 130, also of San Antonio. The loss snapped a four-fight win streak for Tinoco. The referee was Jon Schorle.

From the start, the taller Barrios found Tinoco tough to keep on the outside. The looping right of Tinoco found him throughout the fight, drawing blood from the nose of Barrios. Barrios, confronted with a man who he couldn’t really hurt, simply outworked Tinoco. Throwing more, and landing more, he offset the eye-catching single shots of Tinoco. There were no knockdowns but it was a crowd-pleasing affair. Final scores came in at 78-74 across the board.

Featherweight action opened the televised broadcast.

In just two rounds, 23-year old Mexican Miguel Flores (19-0, 10 KO), 127 ½, of Houston, Texas, scored his second consecutive stoppage after winning four straight on points, knocking out 37-year old former Ghanaian Olympian Alfred Tetteh (23-5-1, 20 KO), 127, of Washington, DC, with a single left to the body. The referee was Gregorio Alvarez.

Tetteh, entering off a knockout loss to Abraham Lopez in May, never really got into the fight. Backed into a corner in the second, a single left echoed off the belly of Tetteh, who never attempted to rise. The official time of the stoppage was 1:10 of round two.  

The card was telecast in the US on Fox Sports 1 as part of the “Premier Boxing Champions” series.

Cliff Rold is the Managing Editor of BoxingScene and a member of the Transnational Boxing Rankings Board and the Boxing Writers Association of America.  He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com