by Keith Idec
Yoenis Tellez took his time Saturday night in taking out Johan Gonzalez.
The rising junior middleweight contender from Cuba dropped the Venezuelan veteran once in the sixth round and twice in the seventh round before their scheduled 10-round fight was stopped at Caribe Royale Resort in Orlando, Florida. Referee Emil Lombardi stopped the action at 1:57 of the seventh round, as soon as Gonzalez went down to one knee after the third knockdown Tellez produced.
Tellez still has fewer than 10 professional fights on his record (9-0, 7 KOs), but the confident contender believes he is ready to fight the winner of the main event Saturday night between IBF junior middleweight champion Bakhram Murtazaliev and former WBO champ Tim Tszyu.
The 24-year-old Tellez told Prime Video’s Claudia Trejos afterward that he took a patient approach to catching Gonzalez with fight-changing punches because he knew his experienced opponent could be dangerous. Gonzalez has won 89 percent of his pro bouts by knockout (35-4, 34 KOs) and had lost by knockout only once before Tellez stopped him.
“I knew it was not gonna be easy,” Tellez said. “I was listening to the instructions in my corner and did the best I could to get the win.”
Tellez’s right cross caused Gonzalez to go down to one knee with approximately 40 seconds to go in the sixth round. Gonzalez got up and made it to the seventh round, but Tellez capitalized on his momentum and remained unbeaten.
A left hook by Tellez knocked Gonzalez to the seat of his trunks when there was just under 1:40 remaining in the seventh round. A staggered Gonzalez tried to withstand that knockdown as well, but Tellez drilled him with two more right hands that sent him to the canvas for the third and final time.
In the bout before Tellez’s victory, hard-hitting Venezuelan middleweight Endry Saavedra dropped Cesar Mateo Tapia three times, but he had to get off the canvas himself and settled for a 10-round majority draw in an action-packed, fast-paced slugfest.
Judge Harold Hunt scored their fantastic fight 94-92 for Tapia. Judges Michael Ross and Efrain Lebron scored it a draw, 93-93 apiece.
Both boxers expressed interest in an immediate rematch, though Saavedra (16-1-1, 13 KOs) doesn’t understand how three knockdowns weren’t enough for him to send Tapia home with the first loss on his professional record (17-0-1, 10 KOs).
“I don’t understand how I can take him down three times and not get the win,” Saavedra told Trejos during his post-fight interview in the ring.
Tapia was more diplomatic. He thought their back-and-forth fight “could’ve gone either way.”
Tapia, a rare Mexican-Australian who was born in Tijuana and raised in Sydney, got off to a strong start in the first two rounds and controlled the action. Saavedra dropped him twice during the third round, however, and appeared on his way to knocking out an opponent who has sparred hundreds of rounds with Tszyu, a friend with whom he shares the same promoter, No Limit Boxing.
Tapia withstood that troublesome round, got back in the fight and landed a right hand that sent Saavedra to the seat of his trunks with about 10 seconds to go in the fifth round.
Saavedra recovered, continually landed punches to Tapia’s body and eventually made Tapia take a knee with just over 1:35 to go in the ninth round. Tapia answered the count at eight after Saavedra dropped him for the third time and held enough to make it to the final round.
Tapia recovered quickly as well and landed several right hands during a spirited 10th round.
CompuBox credited Saavedra for landing 80 more punches overall (208-of-558 to 128-of-387). Saavedra landed 79 more power punches according to those unofficial punch stats (183-of-438 to 104-of-216), whereas he connected on only one more jab than Tapia (25-of-120 to 24-of-171).
