By Keith Idec

Jamal James sent his hometown crowd into a frenzy again Saturday night.

James knocked down Janer Gonzalez in the sixth round and beat him by technical knockout because Gonzalez declined to answer the bell for the seventh round at The Armory in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The 30-year-old James (25-1, 12 KOs) knocked down Gonzalez with a right uppercut during the sixth round, which discouraged Gonzalez from continuing between rounds.

Colombia’s Gonzalez (19-2-1, 15 KOs) lost by knockout or technical knockout for the first time since he turned pro in February 2011. Gonzalez, 31, fought for the first time in 15 months. Prior to meeting James, Gonzalez hadn’t fought since suffering his first defeat – an eight-round unanimous decision to Russia’s Radzhab Butaev (10-0, 8 KOs) in November 2017 in Cleveland.

James’ win was FS1’s co-feature just before the WBC super-middleweight championship main event between Anthony Dirrell and Avni Yildirim.

Gonzalez and James each landed solid power punches to the head as they traded in the first minute of the sixth round. Gonzalez went crashing to the canvas at exactly the hallway point of the sixth round, but it wasn’t ruled a knockdown.

Gonzalez seemed fine when he got up. The replay indicated that their feet got tangled, which sent Gonzalez to the canvas.

A vicious right uppercut sent Gonzalez to the canvas with 17 seconds to go in the sixth. Gonzalez got up, said he was OK and the bell sounded to end the round a couple seconds later.

Once Gonzalez reached his corner, however, he told his handlers he didn’t want to continue.

James landed a hard, straight right hand with 1:10 to go in the fourth round. Solid tactical action ensued until James and Gonzalez landed hard shots during an exciting exchange that brought James’ hometown crowd to its collective feet as the fourth round ended.

Gonzalez went after the taller James’ body throughout the third round. James connected with a hard right hand near the end of the third round, only to have Gonzalez counter him with a left hook.

Gonzalez’s stiff jab was his most effective punch of the second round. James caught Gonzalez with a hard, overhand right early in the second round, when a cut opened beneath James’ left eye.

James and Gonzalez exchanged hard shots just after the halfway point of the first round. James backed Gonzalez into the ropes with a right hand to the body and then touched him with a right hand up top at the 30-second mark of the opening round.

Keith Idec is a senior writer/columnist for BoxingScene.com. He can be reached on Twitter @Idecboxing.