He diligently operated in the sport\u2019s shadows, and when boxing\u2019s bright lights summoned Albert \u201cChop Chop\u201d Gonzalez Saturday night, he came shining through.<\/p>\n
The fast-rising contender from the sport\u2019s best gym scored a second-round knockout of veteran Edward Vazquez, delivering a hellacious body shot to punctuate a barrage that moves Gonzalez to 19-0 with 11 KOs.<\/p>\n
Referee Laurence Cole counted 10 just 1 minute, four seconds into the second round.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted to stay in the pocket. [Vazquez] was a little slow, so I planned to catch him,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cThe body is on my mind every fight. That left to the body ended it all. I felt blessed, knew it was game over no matter what.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u00a0Gonzalez, 24, kept himself busy at club shows surrounding Southern California as his promoter, Top Rank, operated without a broadcast deal.<\/p>\n
He piled up five victories \u2013 four by knockout or stoppage \u2013 and gained the reward of Saturday\u2019s co-main event at Frost Bank Center.<\/p>\n
Gonzalez, of Moreno Valley, California, was enthusiastic about meeting a recent title challenger who was stopped by WBO featherweight Rafael Espinoza in May 2025 before reeling off three consecutive victories.<\/p>\n
Training at the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy alongside unbeaten champions Jesse \u201cBam\u201d Rodriguez and Vergil Ortiz Jnr.<\/p>\n
Gonzalez was so charged by the triumph he said he\u2019d hop on a plane to Saudi Arabia to become Espinoza\u2019s replacement opponent on October 31.<\/p>\n
What keyed Saturday\u2019s showing?<\/p>\n
\u201cStaying disciplined, listening to my trainers,\u201d Gonzalez said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Earlier, former lightweight title challenger Frank Martin stopped former sparring partner Tarik Zaina in the seventh round, a power left igniting a flurry that led to a knockdown preceding the referee\u2019s stoppage at 2:38.<\/p>\n
Martin, 20-1-1 (14 KOs), made his Top Rank promotional debut after coming off a February draw at 140lbs versus Nahir Albright.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt took me a while to get it going, but we got it done,\u201d Martin said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t going my way, but I kept pressing\u2026 I caught him with the hook.\u201d<\/p>\n
Martin, ranked eighth by the WBO and ninth by the WBA, said the reach of Zaina, 18-4-1, presented difficulties before he cracked Zaina with the defining blow. <\/p>\n
Deric \u201cScooter\u201d Davis swept the scorecards, 80-72, against Joaquin Faccio 10-2 of Uruguay to claim his third consecutive victory by decision while improving to 13-0.<\/p>\n
Davis, of Washington, outlanded Faccio 105-51 in power punches.<\/p>\n
Before the main DAZN card, Los Angeles lightweight Sammy Contreras, 9-0, kept his record spotless with three 60-54 scores to set aside Oscar Padilla.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"He diligently operated in the sport\u2019s shadows, and when boxing\u2019s bright lights summoned Albert \u201cChop Chop\u201d Gonzalez Saturday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940352,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[571],"tags":[212867,64,63,802,1920,6653,506799,123799,85],"class_list":["post-940351","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-boxing","tag-albert-gonzalez","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-boxing","tag-boxing-news","tag-boxingscene","tag-edward-vazquez","tag-frank-martin","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940351","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940351"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940351\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940352"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940351"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940351"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940351"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}