By Cliff Rold
For the third time in four contests, 32-year old Tanzanian Rogers Mtagwa (27-15-3, 19 KO) of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania fell short in a bid for a major title belt. Across the ring, 30-year old WBC Featherweight titlist Jhonny Gonzalez (50-7, 44 KO) of Mexico City, Mexico, celebrated his birthday, and the coming Mexican Independence Day, in style at the County Coliseum in El Paso, Texas on Thursday night. Gonzalez had plenty to celebrate after a devastating performance, scorching Mtagwa for a second round stoppage.
Both men came in below the Featherweight limit of 126 lbs., Gonzalez at 125 and Mtagwa at 124. The referee was Guadalupe Garcia.
The long limbed Gonzalez, also a former WBO bantamweight titlist, came out in round one with his arms high, left out front and ready to jab, the classic style of his trainer Nacho Beristain evident at the start. Mtagwa opted less for a jab then lunging lead lefts upstairs and a right to the body. A left uppercut-left hook combo struck the face of Mtagwa but the Tanzanian shook them, coming forward and loading up single bombs. In the final minute, Mtagwa seemed shaken by a few shots but never really hurt. Gonzalez got away with a couple shots that looked to stray below the belt, Mtagwa too focused to be bothered.
The left hand of Gonzalez continued to score best in round two, Mtagwa absorbing harsh hooks to the body and head. Flagging under a continuous assault, Mtagwa was forced to the ropes where the lefts could be even more leveraged and had no defense but to pivot away from the strands and hope to land a bomb. Instead, it was Gonzalez in pursuit, trapping Mtagwa on the ropes again, and then again before finishing affairs near the corner with right hands. A right uppercut and straight right upstairs punished Mtagwa, another couple of glancing blows flying at a helpless Mtagwa and provoking Garcia to save the brave but overwhelmed challenger at 2:15 of round two.
Mtagwa’s defeat likely ends his surprising flirtation with the title picture, the journeyman unable to recapture the magic he had in falling short over the distance against a then-undefeated Juan Manuel Lopez in 2009. Since then, Mtagwa has gone 1-2, both losses coming in the second round, first in a 2010 title challenge of Yuriorkis Gamboa and Thursday against Gonzalez.
Gonzalez continues to show that Featherweight may be the best division of his career, picking up his tenth consecutive victory since a third round knockout loss to still-reigning WBC Jr. Featherweight titlist Toshiaki Nishioka in 2009. Gonzalez, with the victory over Mtagwa, makes his second defense of the Featherweight belt he won earlier this year in Japan where he stopped the favored Hozumi Hasegawa in four rounds.
The bout was televised in the U.S. on ESPN Deportes and webcast at ESPN3.com, promoted by Goosen Tutor.
Cliff Rold is a member of the Ring Magazine Ratings Advisory Panel, the Yahoo Pound for Pound voting panel, and the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be reached at roldboxing@hotmail.com