Azat Hovhannisyan was forced to hear the scorecards for the first time in more than three years, though not for a lack of trying.

A persistent effort put forth by the former title challenger led to a lopsided ten-round, unanimous decision win over Jose Santos Gonzalez. Judges Rudy Barragan (100-89), Karen Holderfield (99-90) and Chris Migliore (99-90) all had Hovhannisyan comfortably winning the junior featherweight preliminary bout Friday afternoon at Banc of California Stadium in Los Angeles.

Hovhannisyan–a locally-based contender originally from Yerevan, Armenia—has never been short on entertainment, more so under the guidance of former junior lightweight titlist and current world-class trainer Robert Garcia and multi-time Manager of the Year Egis Klimas. The difference in class was evident from the opening bell, with Gonzalez always a punch behind as Hovhannisyan was equally effective punching in combination and in his initiating exchanges with lead right hands.

The action became more lopsided as the bout progressed, with Hovhannisyan growing stronger while Gonzalez quickly ran out of answers. Hovhannisyan turned a corner at the midway point, partly at the urging of his corner but also his fighting instinct taking over. Gonzalez rode through a sea of left hooks and long right hands, showing a world class gym as evident in his only having been stopped once through 33 pro fights.  

Sensing a stoppage was on the horizon, Hovhannisyan considerably picked up the pace in round eight. Gonzalez was in survival mode, his offense long ago disappearing as his primary goal was to go the ten-round distance. Hovhannisyan did his best to compromise those plans, letting his hands go in the final minute of the round. Gonzalez was out on his feet before being willed to the canvas, but managed to beat the count of referee Ray Corona and make it to the bell.

Gonzalez achieved his goal of forcing the bout into the hands of the judges, though at the expense of being thoroughly outclassed. Hovhannisyan mixed up his attack in the tenth and final round, flipping between southpaw and conventional and flicking his jab in between right hands. Gonzalez did his best to counter but never came close to forcing Hovhannisyan to break stride.

Hovhannisyan improves to 20-3 (16KOs), though ending a five-fight knockout streak. His last fight to go the distance resulted in a twelve-round points loss to then-WBC junior featherweight titlist Rey Vargas in May 2012. The last decision win for the 32-year-old contender came in September 2017, having racked up six knockouts along with the aforementioned loss to Vargas leading up to Friday’s feat.

Hovhannisyan-Gonzalez aired live on Golden Boy and DAZN social media channels preceding a four-fight DAZN telecast headlined by a light heavyweight clash between Gilberto Ramirez (41-0, 27KOs) and Sullivan Barrera (22-3, 14KOs).

Jake Donovan is a senior writer for BoxingScene.com. Twitter: @JakeNDaBox