The promoters of Puerto Rican junior middleweight slugger Jonathan “Mantequilla” Gonzalez (13-0, 13 KOs), Gary Shaw, Javier Bustillo and Leon Margules, wish to congratulate their 21-year-old fighter for his impressive performance on Friday night at the Chumash Casino Resort and live on ESPN Friday Night Fights.
Making his national television debut in the United States, Gonzalez wore down and stopped former Contender contestant Rudy Cisneros (12-3, 11 KOs) of Chicago at 1:50 of round seven.
While Gonzalez had previously gotten rid of most of his opponents early, according to Shaw, taking Cisneros to round seven was part of the plan.
“Jonathan watches a lot of tape and studies his opponents in-depth. He knew going in that Cisneros would be dangerous for the first few rounds, so he took his time and boxed until the opportunity presented itself to end things. When you hit as hard as he does, it would be easy to think you can just walk in and destroy everyone, but Mantequilla showed a lot of maturity in sticking to the better plan.”
For Margules, what impressed most was how easily Gonzalez handled Cisneros.
“On the inside, on the outside, coming forward, boxing and moving, it was apparent no matter what he was doing, that Jonathan was a class above. I’ve seen him walk through plenty of opponents, but tonight was a reminder of just how skillful Jonathan is when he needs to be.”
Bustillo says he’s happy to see his young fighter still packs a punch in the later rounds of a fight. “Jonathan had never seen the seventh round of a fight before and now we know he still hits like a mule, no matter what round. A big part of that is all the work he did in training camp before the fight. It all paid off.”
A member of the Team Puerto Rico Boxing squad comprised of Puerto Rico’s brightest future stars, Gonzalez’s next appearance is scheduled for June 11 at the Roseland Ballroom in New York City as part of the Boricua Invasion back-to-back boxing shows on Puerto Rican Day Parade weekend. The fight, against an opponent that is temporarily TBA, is also scheduled to be shown live on ShoBox: The New Generation.
