SecondsOut Comeback Of The Year 2013: Jhonny Gonzalez

Jhonny Gonzalez has always been an entertaining fighter, giving fans their money’s worth just about every time he laces them up. He’s tallied 55 wins in his career, 47 of them by knockout, but consistency has always been a problem.

Over the past few years, Gonzalez was starting to become known as the guy that would come up short in big fights. Ever since winning a split decision over Fernando Montiel in 2006, he hasn’t been able to secure his legacy by adding another big name win to his resume. Since then he has come up short against Israel Vazquez, Gerry Penalosa, Toshiaki Nishioka and Daniel Ponce De Leon. That all changed in 2013, when Gonzalez capped off a brilliant year with a first round knockout of Abner Mares, who up until that point was generally considered as a top 10 pound for pound fighter.

Gonzalez finished the year 3-0 with 2 knockouts to earn the comeback fighter of the year award from the panel at Seconds Out, narrowly edging out Marcos Maidana. While Maidana is coming off a thrilling performance against Adrien Broner, he only fought twice in 2013 and his biggest win was not nearly as impressive as the one round beat down that Gonzalez delivered to Mares. Was the dominating performance against Mares just a fluke, or has Gonzalez found a way to thwart off father time a little longer to become a great champion once again?

We will find out when he takes center stage in a rematch with Mares. That rematch was scheduled for the Staples Center in Los Angeles on February 15 but a hand injury to Gonzalez has forced a postponement.

January 2, 2013