Alejandro González Jr. – Career History
On July 18th, Carl Frampton will fight in America for the first time. The Don Haskins Centre in El Paso, Texas, will be the venue as ‘The Jackal’ looks to impress on a Premier Boxing Champions card that will be shown coast-to-coast on U.S. terrestrial television with CBS. His opponent will be the Mexican prospect, Alejandro González Jr., and irish-boxing.com is here to give you the full low-down on ‘La Cobríta’
Son of a Champion
As many will already know, González Jr. is the son of former WBC featherweight champion, Alejandro González, who held the title back in 1995 after defeating Kevin Kelly. Having fought his way up through the ranks in Mexico, González Jr. is now ranked #13 by the IBF and is in a position to attempt to emulate his father.
Still only 22, González Jr. has fought eight more times than Frampton en-route to compiling a 25(15)-1-2 record. Like many Mexicans, ‘La Cobríta’ entered the paid game young and had his professional debut in 2010 – just a week after his seventeenth birthday. His first outing ended in a draw against fellow debutant, Oswaldo Novoa. Novoa would go on to win the WBC minnimumweight title last year – while González Jr. would move up the weights as his young body developed.
Stepping Up
In his sixteenth fight, González made his American debut and knocked out Leopoldo González in the first round. This fight happened in El Paso on the undercard of Andy Lee’s unsuccessful first tilt at a middleweight world title versus Julio César Chávez Jr. back in 2012. On his return to El Paso, and now co-headlining with Chávez Jr., ‘La Cobríta’ will be hoping to leave another Irishman disappointed.
In 2013, González Jr. upset the odds by defeating Hanzel Martínez for the lightly regarded WBC Interim Youth Silver Bantamweight title. Then-unbeaten, Martínez is the brother-in-law of Antonio Margarito and was hotly tipped to become a world champion. However González Jr. stopped him within two rounds and Martínez has faded into obscurity.
2013 also saw González Jr. go one better than Leo Santa Cruz by knocking down Jose Cayetano en-route to a points victory. Boxing fans may remember Cayetano as the man who lost a snooze-fest to a laboured Santa Cruz on the undercard of Floyd Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao last month.
Recovering from Defeat
2014 saw González Jr. lose for the first, and only, time in his career so far. A former IBF super flyweight world champion, Juan Alberto Rosas, was the man to smash his duck egg – winning via a ninth round technical decision after a clash of heads.
Since this disappointment, González Jr. has won three fights on the spin to re-establish himself in the IBF rankings and has now been hand-picked by Haymon to challenge for Frampton’s IBF belt. While he will be a massive underdog, he will be hoping to follow in his father’s footsteps and become world champion.
Stay tuned to irish-boxing.com as the fight approaches – The #1 source of news and info for everything to do with Frampton-González Jr.
