Gonzalez halts Arce in eleven
WBC featherweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez (57-8, 48 KOs) scored an 11th round TKO over fellow Mexican Jorge “Travieso” Arce (62-8-2, 49 KOs) on Saturday night at the Centro de Usos Múltiples (CUM) in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico.
Gonzalez dominated the action until gaining the stoppage victory, ending Arce's hopes of winning a major world title in his fifth weight class.
He opened a cut on the bridge of Arce's nose in the second round and then another over Arce's left eye in the third round, before dropping him with a left hook at the end of the round.
Following some good exchanges from rounds 4 to 5, the crowd came to life when hometown favorite Arce landed a hard left hook that backed Gonzalez up. But the bigger, stronger and faster champion resumed control, dropping Arce with another left hook at the end of the fifth.
Gonzalez continued to punish Arce and midway through the ninth he landed yet another left hook to the head and knocked Arce down again.
By the 11th, Arce had taken a lot of punishment and, after Gonzalez drove Arce to the ropes with a right hand followed by another hook, referee Johnny Callas halted the bout at 2:43 of the round.
The 35-year-old Arce announced his retirement after the bout.
Gonzalez, 33, was making the second defence of his second featherweight title reign. He regained the belt by knocking out Abner Mares in the first round in an upset win in August 2013. He then made his first defence, a 10th-round technical decision win over Clive Atwell in May.