By Ian S Palmer
The UIC Pavilion in Chicago, Illinois will be the site of ESPN’s Friday Night Fights this Friday February 7 and the main event will feature junior middleweight Roberto ‘La Amenaza’ García taking on ‘El Demonio’ Norberto Gonzalez. The 10 round-bout will be promoted by Warriors boxing. Garcia will climb through the ring ropes with an impressive record of 33-3-1 with one no decision. He also has 22 Kos on his resume. Gonzalez has built up a mark of 20-2 along with 13 Kos.
The 33-year-old García, who hails from Weslaco, Texas, but was born in Mexico, has won five bouts in a row. His last encounter was against Larry Smith in November and he managed to beat him by a six-round unanimous decision. The 32-year-old Gonzalez of Mexico took a 10-round unanimous decision over Michael Oliveira in his last bout, also in November.
García turned pro in 2001 and his most memorable pro boxing moment probably occurred in the ring back in March of 2012 when he beat Antwone Smith by a 10-round unanimous decision on Friday Night Fights. Garcia was successful that night because he put the pressure on Smith right from the opening bell. He outworked his opponent and appeared to be the hungry fighter during the bout by beating Smith to the punch. His best opponent to date was Antonio Margarito, but he dropped a 10-round unanimous decision to him in May of 2010.
Gonzalez turned pro back in 2007 and he’s also faced Antwone Smith, but lost an eight-round unanimous decision to him in 2009. He also won the vacant Mexican welterweight title in 2009 when he beat Manuel Garcia by a 12-round unanimous decision. He’s about average height for a junior middleweight at 5-foot-10, which is the same height as Garcia.
Prediction
Garcia has quite a bit more experience than Gonzalez as he’s taken on better boxers during his career. These include Margarito, Antwone Smith, Calvin Odom, Ian MacKillop, Jose Medina, Juan Carlos Rubio, Homer Gibbins, Carson Jones, and Freddy Hernandez. He’s lost two fights and they were both by decision. His last loss was to Margarito and he’s on a decent winning streak. He’s also the betting favourite going into the bout and that makes sense. Gonzalez has never been stopped either so the chances of this going the distance are pretty good. Look for Garcia to take it by a decision or late stoppage.
