By Ryan Maquiñana
Unbeaten middleweight prospect Brandon Gonzales went through his account of sparring with Andre Ward when the latter incurred a cut on his right eye, causing a postponement of his Oct. 29 Super Six final with Carl Froch.
“We were sparring, and at the beginning of the second round, really early in, it just happened. When I spar, I’m not looking into the eyes of who I’m sparring, and all of a sudden, it looked like he had blood in his headgear," Gonzales told BoxingScene.com.
“I said, ‘Hey man, you’re bleeding.’ The cut was over the right eye on his eyebrow. They jumped on it pretty quick, but it’s unfortunate that his fight is off now.”
As far as the specific cause of the cut, Gonzales couldn’t explain what happened given the precautionary measures both fighters took to prevent such an incident.
“I honestly couldn’t tell you where it come from, from a punch or anything. I just saw the blood coming down, and it was pretty deep. We both wear the Everlast headgear with the bar on it to keep stuff like this happening.”
Ward and Gonzales share the same trainer, Virgil Hunter, and both men were slated to take the trip to Atlantic City that weekend.
The 27-year-old Gonzales (14-0, 10 KOs), who recently signed with manager James Prince, was to fight an opponent yet to be named in the ShoBox co-feature to Eddie Chambers-Tony Thompson the night before the Super Six final.
“Virgil was talking to Dan Goossen, so as far as I know, everything was still a go,” Gonzales said. “Either way, I’m still training and getting ready for a fight.”
The Sacramento native and former top-ranked amateur light heavyweight in the nation is optimistic that he’ll be able to put his skills on display in his premium cable debut.
“It’s great to be back after almost over 10 months to come out with a fight on ShoBox,” he said. “This is a great opportunity with my new team and show that I’m taking the right direction in my career.”
Ryan Maquiñana is the boxing correspondent at Comcast SportsNet Bay Area. He’s a member of the Boxing Writers Association of America and Ring Magazine’s Ratings Advisory Panel. E-mail him at rmaquinana@gmail.com , check out his blog at www.maqdown.com or follow him on Twitter: @RMaq28.