Featherweight Joet Gonzalez continues to fit the label of the best fighter yet to win a world title, as he outclassed Jose Enrique Vivas, in the co-feature of Saturday, April 1st, ESPN+ card, from Tulsa, Oklahoma, promoted by Top Rank Inc.
The fight was easy to score as Vivas came forward with little to no head movement and Gonzalez countered as well as intercepted the punches, Vivas threw. In the ninth round, it appeared a slew of left hooks that landed from Gonzalez on Vivas appeared to greatly impact Vivas’ jaw. Vivas did one thing - and when it didn’t work he just tried harder. Gonzalez inflicted a ton of damage on Vivas who had a busted nose and a comprised jaw. Vivas never backed down, but Gonzalez had an answer for everything.
Gonzalez was a different tier of a fighter as he could take what Vivas was doing and adjust in real-time. Vivas showed world-class toughness, but Gonzalez showed the ability to adapt to the situation.
The judges saw the bout 99-91, 98-92, and 98-92 for Joet Gonzalez. This was Gonzalez's first fight since a razor-thin loss to Isaac Dogboe who got a world title shot from his win over Gonzalez.
Did we witness the birth of a star? Jahi Tucker made his junior middleweight debut and defeated a dangerous puncher Nikoloz Sekhniashvili. What made the victory so impressive was that in the first round, Tucker was caught by a left hook from Sekhniashvili that rocked Tucker. How Tucker responded is that of legend by the third round Sekhniashvili was showing signs of fatigue while Tucker was standing up in his corner during the minute break between rounds, yelling at Sekhniashvili between rounds.
This demeanor would carry over into the fight as Tucker would punch off the break and when the referee was trying to break the action. The temperament of Tucker was that of an angry pitbull. Sekhniashvili’s downfall was his offensive style that didn’t take into account defense all that much, and Tucker began to exploit that by opening a cut on Sekhniashvili in the sixth round.
All three judges scored the bout 77-74 for Jahi Tucker, who took this fight as a statement. Tucker wants to fight Xander Zayas, and Nikoloz Sekhniashvili is Zayas’ sparring partner. With this win, Tucker will further his pursuit of fighting Zayas, who Jahi Tucker seems more than eager to fight as soon as possible.
Tucker missed weight for his last fight against Ivan Pandzic at welterweight which singled his move up in weight.