Gonzalez: “He’s Got to Earn the Respect”

Joet Gonzalez Humble, But Still Surly After Loss

Joet Gonzalez (23-1, 14KO’s) went to the ring on Saturday October 26 with a great many things on his mind. He was focused on maintaining his undefeated record, shutting up a noisy foe, upholding his family’s honor and becoming a world champion. All of these items were on the line when he fought rising star “Fearless” Shakur Stevenson (13-0, 7KO’s). Although Stevenson was pegged to be the favorite, the bout was promoted as a two evenly matched boxers squaring off.

Once in the ring however, the wide gulf in talent and ability was brought front and center with jarring speed. Throughout the night, Stevenson proved to be the most elusive fighter that Gonzalez has fought to date.

Regardless of his adjustments, there was essentially nothing that he could do to maintain any offensive traction. In fact, the only round that Gonzalez arguably won was the seventh. The trouble with that was this was a period that it appeared that Fearless obviously took off. Outside of never giving up, and competing with a true fighters’ spirit, Gonzalez had little to be happy about after the bout.

“He kept his distance really well. When I tried to put the pressure on, my punches weren’t landing flush and then when they would land, he was making the second and third one miss, so that was difficult. And that was pretty much the main thing […] no excuses, I lost and its okay, I’ll come back from it.” ~Joet Gonzalez

WINNING ISN’T EVERYTHING

Even though he was soundly and thoroughly defeated, Gonzalez maintained his class and composure post-fight. The California-born fighter was honest in his assessment that Stevenson was a very good fighter with exceptional defensive skills. When pressed on the issue, Gonzalez openly admitted that Fearless was truly a difficult target to track down.

He gave Stevenson his proper respect as a boxer. However, he was not so quick to forgive him as a man. In the lead up to the prizefight, much was made of the outside-the-ring feud that the two men shared. Their personal squabbling was centered around Stevenson dating Gonzalez’s sister. Apparently, Joet Gonzalez felt as if the newly crowned WBO world featherweight champion had been too disrespectful to let bygones be bygones so quickly.

Admittedly, Gonzalez said that perhaps down the line they could be a bit more chummy with one another. Though, that day is far off in the making.

“I think that he is good but not like great like people are saying. He still beat me and no excuses but I think there is more special fighters out there […] It’s going to take time, he can’t expect this just to go away with one fight, one night. He disrespected me for years, for years me and my family so time will tell, he’s still got to earn it. Whether this fight he won really doesn’t matter, it’s not going to go. All that disrespect is not going to go away because he won. He’s got to earn the respect.” ~Joet Gonzalez

By: Bakari Simpson