Before a vocal crowd in Fresno, California, Jonathan Gonzalez finally accomplished his mission of capturing the WBO's junior flyweight world title from heavily favored Elwin Soto in a big upset. (photos by Ed Mulholland)
Gonzalez, who lost in his prior title challenge, secured gold with a split-decision victory. The scores were 116-112, 116-112 for Gonzalez and 116-112 tally for Soto.
Puerto Rico's Gonzalez, an awkward southpaw, outboxed the hard-charging Soto from the outside over 12 rounds. Soto (19-2, 13 KOs) had made three successful defenses of the title he won from Angel Acosta in 2019.
In his other world title fight, Gonzalez (25-3-1, 14 KOs) suffered a seventh-round TKO loss to Japan's Kosei Tanaka in 2019.
