Gonzalez: Marquez, Golden Boy Doubts Inspired Me

By Jose Luis Camarillo, notifight.com

WBC featherweight champion Jhonny Gonzalez (55-8, 47KOs) is still living up his big victory over Abner Mares (26-1-1, 14KOs) from last Saturday night in Carson, California. The boxer, who turns 32-years-old on September 15th, is still looking to rub it in to everyone who doubted his ability to win. He dropped Mares in the first round with a big lefthook and then finished him off. Mares was listed on many pound-for-pound lists and viewed as a heavy favorite to beat Gonzalez. There is a rematch clause and the two boxers are expected to meet before the end of the year.

"In fact, no one thought I was going to win. I saw the Golpe de Golpe program on ESPN and heard how Juan Manuel Marquez and another commenter saw me as being the loser and said it appeared that it would be very difficult for me to win. All of those kinds of comments inspired me, made me more motivated to go on fighting," Gonzalez said.

"They already had a date scheduled [in December] for Mares against Leo Santa Cruz. I think it was disrespectful. At Thursday's final press conference, all of the media was talking about the fight between them. One of the things that bothers me more than anything is that they already had their plans made. De La Hoya, Schaefer, Eric Gomez - they were all confident that I would lose. That was the worst error they could have been committed."