Boxing In America: Shaun George, Jhonny Gonzalez, Jose Reyes Roll To Victory

ByRichard Eberline

It was a good Friday night in The States and we start off at the Thomas and Mack Center in Las Vegas where Shaun George, 17-2-2 (8), crushed the light heavyweight dreams of former heavyweight world champion Chris Byrd, 40-5-1 (21), gunning down the one-time defensive master in the ninth of a scheduled ten rounder.

Instead of using his counterpunching strengths, 37 year old southpaw Byrd tried to force the action and appeared to no longer have the reflexes to avoid getting hit as he was nailed all night by the younger man.

George landed much of what he threw and dropped Byrd in the first but it wasn’t until the ninth round that he could hurt the former Olympian. A left-right combination canvassed Byrd hard in that round and the former heavyweight was then felled by the followup barrage before the bout was finally waived off at 2:45 of the fifth.

Having now won his fourth straight bout, George will be looking to leverage this high profile success into a title shot in the near future while Byrd may just be at the end of the line after a long and proud career that saw him overcome a lot of disadvantages to achieve remarkable feats.

On the undercard, the career of former WBO NABO Super Feather titlist Koba Gogoladze, 20-3 (8), is now in serious doubt after the 35 year old Philadelphia based Georgian southpaw was stopped in the first round by South Korea’s PABA Featherweight Champ Ji-Hoon Kim, 14-5 (11), following Gogoladze’s tenth round stoppage loss at the hands of Alex Arthur last July.

At the Morongo Casino in Cabazon, CA, it was a battle of ex-world champions with former WBO Bantam boss Jhonny Gonzalez, 38-6 (32), winning his fourth in a row by stopping former IBF Light Flyweight titlist Mauricio Pastrana, 34-9-2 (22), in four rounds at super bantam.

The support bill featured winning performances from super bantam Antonio Escalante, super feather Eduardo Escobedo and light welter Javier Castro.

The Civic Center in Kissimmee, FL played host to the third WBO Latino Lightweight title defense of Jose Reyes, 23-4 (8), who achieved a wide points decision over challenger Noe Bolanos, 20-3 (12), a former WBC Continental Americas Featherweight beltholder, over twelve rounds.