By Rick Reeno

This was not the kind of week that Jhonny Gonzalez had expected.

On Friday, Gonzalez and his promoter, Promociones del Pueblo, were hit by a million dollar lawsuit from Golden Boy Promotions. In the legal documents, Golden Boy claims to have contracted pact with Gonzalez - and the agreement consists of a four fight deal which spans a two year period.

Golden Boy's legal team wrote in their summons: "In December 2013, Golden Boy entered into a written agreement with Gonzalez and DPP wherein Golden Boy obtained the exclusive right to promote Gonzalez's professional boxing matches throughout the world for a period of two years beginning on the first bout conducted pursuant to the agreement, or four fights, whichever comes first (the "Agreement").  The Agreement further provides that Gonzalez will not take part in any professional boxing match prior to the first bout conducted pursuant to the Agreement.

In August, 2014, Golden Boy proposed that Gonzalez fight Gary Russell, Jr., a promising featherweight boxer in either November or December of that year.  DPP initially ignored this proposal and then rejected it, preferring to have Gonzalez fight a lesser opponent, Jose Arce, in Mexico in October.

Thereafter, Golden Boy continued to try and find appropriate fights for Gonzalez.  However, DPP consistently refused the fights proposed by Golden Boy for Gonzalez.

In February, 2015, it became clear why DPP was refusing all of the fights proposed by Golden Boy for Gonzalez.  DPP was conspiring with Russell's manager/promoter, Al Haymon, to put together a fight between Gonzalez and Russell in which Golden Boy would not be involved."

On Saturday night, Gonzalez defending his WBC featherweight championship against Russell in a Showtime televised headliner from The Palms Resort and Casino in Las Vegas. Russell's hand speed and accurate punching was too much for Gonzalez to deal with. The Mexican veteran was never in the fight, going down three times before the contest was waved off in the fourth round.  

After the match, a spokesman for Gonzalez's promoter claimed the lawsuit from Golden Boy was certainly on Jhonny's mind and affected his concentration for the fight. Gonzalez's team members claimed the legal maneuver was a strategic move to mentally rattle the fighter and they questioned the timing of Golden Boy's decision to file their papers on the eve of the fight.

"His concentration was definitely affected by this. There is no way that Jhonny's could not have been affected by the lawsuit. It affected his concentration, his last day concentration," Jamie Quintana, a spokesman for Promociones del Pueblo, stated after the Russell contest was over.

Gonzalez's trainer Nacho Beristain had a different story. He did not expect Russell to fight so aggressively. Nacho says their game plan was based on Gonzalez chasing Russell down and cutting off the ring. Russell had a different plan of attack. He came out looking for the obvious target, which is Gonzalez's chin.

"This was not the kind of fight we expected from Russell. We were expecting a track meet, but he didn't fight that way," Nacho said.