Telefutura and Jhonny Gonzalez: Spanish for “Refuge”

By Bart Barry

Included in every boxing fan’s Top 100 goals are the following: See as many competitive fights as I can, and learn Spanish. Admittedly, the first goal is higher up the list than the second. Of course, there are also a few bilingual fans who are exceptions. But such exceptional fans are offset by many others who wasted high school elective classes on French and Latin and now need to catch up.

Would you believe there’s a single resource that can help with both goals and comes free in most basic cable packages? It’s called Telefutura, and its invaluable “Solo Boxeo” program is on every Friday. Along with two well-matched weekly brawls, Telefutura also offers humorous, informal commentary and ringside appearances by world champs.

But don’t mistake this as a charitable plea to help some failing Spanish-language network. Quite the opposite. Telefutura thrives in a niche market old as New Mexico, Arizona and California. The point here is not to rescue Telefutura, but to alert boxing fans about a pleasant refuge from Saturday matinee broadcasts of Wladimir Klitschko.

All that’s needed is an open mind and a Spanish-language starter kit. You supply the first, and in a few paragraphs you’ll get the second.

This Friday night’s “Solo Boxeo” telecast will win converts among fight fans giving Telefutura a first try. The main event – Jhonny Gonzalez versus Irene Pacheco – will feature the WBO bantamweight champion against a former IBF flyweight champion, in Tucson’s Desert Diamond Casino. Gonzalez and Pacheco share a collective record of 66-6 (52 KOs), with the current champion accounting for five of those losses.

That current champion, though, is Jhonny Gonzalez, a Mexico City pugilist whose style causes opponents as much trouble as his name causes editors. “Jhonny” is an odd, even erroneous, spelling; surely “Johnny” would have worked better. But Jhonny’s got a sense of humor about the birth-certificate typo that’s now his identity. His first name’s “Jhonny,” his nickname’s “Jhonny” and his son’s name is “Jhonny Junior.”

And the Gonzalez quirks don’t end with that name. Jhonny wants to be a boxer and a technician as much as his mother undoubtedly wanted to relocate that ‘h’ on her son’s birth certificate. Whatever boxing fans opined of it last May, secretly Jhonny Gonzalez probably favors his dull split-decision victory over Fernando Montiel above his other recent fights.

“So what if those sadists in Home Depot Center booed me?” Jhonny probably tells himself. “Finally, I fought like a skilled boxer-puncher with a lengthy amateur pedigree!”

That may be true, but decisioning Fernando Montiel is not what made Jhonny Gonzalez a must-see attraction. Rather, it is Gonzalez’s inability to resist banging away with other opponents that has made Jhonny popular.

Two such bloodlettings come to mind. At Golden Boy Promotions’ inaugural “Boxing World Cup” two Octobers ago, Jhonny Gonzalez faced Ratanachai Sor Vorapin, a Thai puncher with 42 career knockouts. After dropping Sor Vorapin twice in Round 3, Jhonny abandoned his careful strategy and winged punches with his opponent for nine hellacious minutes before stopping Sor Vorapin in the seventh round.

Then, last September 16, Jhonny moved up to super-bantamweight and challenged Israel Vazquez for his WBC title. Gonzalez and Vazquez’s technically proficient display initially brought the MGM Grand crowd’s disapproval. But by the tenth round, when the Gonzalez corner had to wave the white towel, both Gonzalez and Vazquez had been to the blue mat twice.

However boxing writers may later have voted in a Fight of the Year poll, Gonzalez-Vazquez was the best fight any of them saw, from ringside, in 2006.

This Friday night, Jhonny Gonzalez takes on Irene Pacheco, a Colombian slugger who successfully defended his world flyweight title six times – four by knockout – before he lost to current IBF flyweight champ Vic Darchinyan. Since then, Pacheco has moved up to the bantamweight division and won an IBF title eliminator and the WBO intercontinental title. Gonzalez-Pacheco will not disappoint.

But if somehow it does, Telefutura will be saved by the evening’s co-main event, David “The Destroyer” Lopez versus Rocky Montoya. David Lopez’s record – 30 wins and 12 losses – portends nothing great.

But the passion that Lopez excites in Tucson fans is a thing hard to quantify and almost impossible to explain. Last August, future Hall of Famer Shane Mosley attended a Desert Diamond card, as a Golden Boy Promotions partner. Halfway through the card, Mr. Mosley obligingly made his way to a large conference room and spoke to a few reporters. Two hours later, David Lopez made his way to the same dais, and the event was a standing-room-only affair.

It’s not enough to write that David Lopez means more to Tucsonans than Shane Mosley does. David Lopez means more to Tucson fight fans than Randy Johnson means to Phoenix baseball fans.

Desert Diamond Casino may be a polished venue, but its fans and their hero are not. David Lopez’s story is one of a venture begun lackadaisically. Lopez was knocked-out in half his first six prizefights. In his twenty-eighth match, Lopez got knocked-out in Round 1 by a guy in his third pro fight. But since 2001, David Lopez has become “The Destroyer” and amassed a record of 16-3 (11 KOs) and filled Desert Diamond, off-television, many times.

Because Bernardo Osuna, the man who supplies play-by-play for “Solo Boxeo,” is a knowledgeable chap who tends to stay late at venues where Telefutura broadcasts, expect Mr. Osuna to supply some witty twist to the David Lopez story this Friday.

But how will a newcomer to Telefutura have any idea what Bernardo Osuna is saying? Here’s the promised Spanish-language starter kit: “Izquierdo” means left, “derecho” means right, “gancho” means hook, and “medio del cloroformo” means knockout.

SAND BOX
Along with the aforementioned seven-bout card this Friday night in Tucson, the Grand Canyon State has two more boxing events this weekend.

Saturday night, Philadelphia’s Aaron Torres will headline a Felko Promotions card at Fort McDowell Casino in Fountain Hills. Also appearing on the card will be Phoenix’s undefeated super-featherweight prospect Juan Garcia.

And for desert fight fans seeking a good rest stop during their drive from Tucson to Fountain Hills, there’s this. Saturday will mark the grand opening of the LA Boxing of Ahwatukee gym in Phoenix. Participating in the kickoff festivities will be two-time Super-Featherweight Champion of the World Genaro “Chicanito” Hernandez and undefeated Phoenix flyweight Becky “La Guerrera” Garcia.