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Versus Fight Night Live Recap

December 11, 2008

Prudential Center-Newark, New Jersey

IBF Bantamweight (118 pounds) 12-Round Championship Match:

Joseph Agbeko (25-1, 22 KO's, 118 pounds) (c) vs. William Gonzalez (21-2, 19 KO's, 117 pounds)

Agbeko won this title in his last match, a huge upset of Luis Perez on September 29, 2007 at Arco Arena in Sacramento, California. The resident of the Bronx, New York came into the match having faced a slew of weak opposition. Entering the match, Agbeko had 11 of his 24 wins against boxers making their professional debuts and another 6 wins against boxers who had never won a match. Agbeko had become Perez' mandatory challenger by defeating a total of 6 opponents with 3 or more victories. Perez had beaten some very good opposition and Agbeko was supposed to be knocked out in highlight reel fashion to make Perez more marketable. However, Agbeko dominated the match. Eventually, the doctor was forced to stop the match after round 7 saying of Perez that, "neurologically he was deteriorating". The original recap of that match can be found here: http://www.number1contender.net/the-latest/2008/12/14/recap-of-joseph-agbeko-vs-luis-perez.html Agbeko is making his first defense of this title.

The champion has been inactive for such a long time due to illness and repeated injuries. Agbeko has postponed this mandatory defense 4-times. The last postponement was due to Agbeko catching malaria when he traveled back to his native Ghana for treatment on one of his numerous injuries.

Agbeko is The Ring's number 6 contender to their vacant championship at 118 pounds.

Gonzalez primarily boxes in Panama, Costa Rica and his home country of Nicaragua. This is his second match in the United States. The other is where he picked up 1 of his 2 losses. On September 1, 2005, Gonzalez was knocked out according to boxrec.com at 3:07 of round 3 by the very good Jhonny Gonzalez in a match for the WBO NABO belt at 118 pounds at the Desert Diamond Casino in Tucson, Arizona.

William Gonzalez' last match was a knockout victory at 56 seconds of round 1 over Arturo Valenzuela on January 25, 2008 at the Casino Pharaohs in Managua, Nicaragua. Gonzalez has been Agbeko's mandatory contender for the last 11 months and forced into inactivity waiting for the champion to get healthy.

Gonzalez is unranked by The Ring and the number 30 ranked boxer in the world at 118 pounds by boxrec.com.

At 27-years-old, Gonzalez is 1 year younger then the 28-year-old Agbeko. Gonzalez has the height advantage standing 5' 8" tall, while Agbeko stands 5' 6" tall. The challenger has the reach advantage with a 72" wingspan, compared to the 67" wingspan of the champion. No unofficial weights approaching match time are given, but the IBF requires boxers to weigh-in again within 10 pounds of their official weigh-in weights on the day of the match. That means both boxers should be roughly the same size entering the ring. However, Gonzalez should be the slightly heavier boxer in the ring. Both boxers are naturally left-handed. However, only Gonzalez will employ the southpaw stance. Agbeko will box out of the orthodox stance.

New Jersey uses a modified version of the unified rules of boxing where both the referee and doctor can stop the match. Also, New Jersey gives the warning clap that the round will end with 5 seconds to go in the round instead of the usual 10 seconds. This is supposed to allow the referee to better position himself to break the action at the end of the round. However, a lot of times it messes up the boxers' timing and they end up throwing punches past the bell. The home areas of the official judges keeping score of this match from ringside are not announced. The referee is Earl Brown.

With 48 seconds to go in round 1, Gonzalez lands a hard left uppercut to Agbeko's groin. The referee is asking for time for Agbeko to recover. The referee gives Gonzalez a light warning when the clock is finally stopped with 40 seconds to go in the round. It appears the referee was shielded from seeing the true ferocity of that foul. The referee rushed Agbeko and the boxer probably did not take 30 seconds to recover from the low blow. Agbeko wins a very good round 1, 10-9. Gonzalez was bleeding in the corner after round 1. the cut was caused by an unintentional clash of heads. Gonzalez' corner got the cut stopped before round 2, though. During the break between rounds 1 and 2 the referee warned both boxers for leading with their heads. It appears this match is going to require a lot of work from the referee. Round 2 is very hard to score. This match is becoming an exciting brawl with both boxers deciding to trade punches and not bothering to do much defensively. Gonzalez may win round 2, 10-9. Round 3 is another very difficult round to score. Very close to even, but Agbeko finished the round stronger to maybe take it, 10-9. Through 3 rounds, Agbeko leads on my scorecard, 29-28.

Agbeko wins round 4, 10-9. The boxers have continued to trade power punches the entire match. However, Agbeko appears to be landing the more powerful punches, now. At the end of round 4, Gonzalez was cut badly over his left eye. It was caused by a head butt. That cut may effect Gonzalez' vision and be a problem for him for the rest of the match. Agbeko wins a close round 5, 10-9. Gonzalez kept throwing punches after the bell to end round 6 and 1 of those punches caught Agbeko low. Agbeko goes staggering off to his corner and can barely sit down. Apparently, he did not think to walk it off.On replay it is clear, Gonzalez delivered a powerful left hook to Agbeko's package at the bell. The boxer may deserve more time to recover during the intermission. Gonzalez may have won the very close round 6, 10-9. This is one of the most difficult to score matches that has been recapped in a long time. Agbeko leads on my scorecard after 6 rounds, 58-56.

The referee let Agbeko know that he knew the boxer was hit low during the break between rounds 6 and 7. However, Agbeko was not given an extended recovery period. The referee also warned both boxers again for leading with their heads during that intermission. There are numerous severe headbutts every round. However, the referee cannot take a point for it, because both boxers are responsible. Agbeko wins round 7, 10-9. The champion wins round 8, 10-9. Agbeko has started showing much better head movement the last few rounds, which has helped him take over the match. Entering round 9, Gonzalez has 3 cuts on his face. All were caused by headbutts, but none seem to be effecting his vision. Gonzalez' corner has been doing an amazing job keeping those cuts from getting worse. Round 9 is the closest round in a while. Agbeko may have won round 9, 10-9. After 9 rounds, Agbeko leads on my scorecard, 88-83.

Good round 10 for Gonzalez and he takes it, 10-9. Gonzalez wins round 11, 10-9. The challenger is changing the tide of this match by throwing his jab and going to the body of Agbeko. In the early rounds of this match, Gonzalez had been primarily throwing power shots at Agbeko's head. Agbeko has been slow to react to Gonzalez' new strategy and the body punches have seemed to do the most damage to Agbeko. Agbeko's trainer has been rubbing the champion's legs between rounds to try to increase the blood flow into them, because his movement has been noticeably slowed the last few rounds. Agbeko lands several good straight right hands to win round 12, 10-9. The champion wins the match on my scorecard, 116-112.

The final decision courtesy of "Generous" Joe Antonacci is that the judges have scored this match: 114-114, even, that is overruled by the scores of 116-112 and 116-112 both for the winner by majority decision and still IBF Bantamweight Champion of the World, Joseph King Kong Agbeko. The win moves Agbeko to 26-1 with 22 wins coming by way of knockout.

The final CompuBox numbers have Agbeko landing 287 of the 815 total punches he threw, for a 35% total connect percentage. Gonzalez landed 299 of the 915 total punches he threw, for a 33% total connect percentage.

Agbeko was very good against a seemingly very good opponent in this match. Following this match, The Ring moved Agbeko up 1 spot in their rankings to be their number 5 contender at 118 pounds. However, his defense is still abysmal. The biggest money match for him would seem to be a rematch with Gonzalez.

Gonzalez was very good in this match, also. The Ring made Gonzalez their number 10 contender at 118 pounds following this match. Gonzalez probably could have won if he had used a better strategy in this match. It would make sense for him to do an immediate rematch of this match. Showtime would probably be interested in the rematch. However, those cuts are going to have Gonzalez suspended for months.

This event should be replayed in the coming years and is a must watch. The Agbeko-Gonzalez match was very good. The crowd for this event was tremendous. Altogether, this was one of the best shows all year.