SAN BERNARDINO, California – Albert “Chop Chop” Gonzalez was hellbent on taking any mutual drama out of his Saturday night ProBox TV bout.
By delivering multiple flurries upon veteran Maryland fighter Brandon Chambers, Gonzalez delivered a TKO featherweight victory just 1 minute, 27 seconds into the first round at the Orange Show Events Center.
Gonzalez, 23, fought for the fourth time as his promoter Top Rank transitions broadcast deals from ESPN, which ended in July, to DAZN, which is set to start later this spring.
Following back-to-back scraps that Gonzalez, 17-0 (10 KOs), finished with knockouts at California shows in Long Beach and San Jacinto, he sought to set up a well-placed position on one of DAZN’s early cards.
He dropped Chambers, 12-5-1, with a combination, and when Chambers responded poorly after rising at the count of nine, the referee waved the bout over.
“Gonzalez was in two wars in previous fights, but he learned a lot,” Top Rank’s Hall of Fame matchmaker Brad Goodman told BoxingScene.
The bout was part of a card leading to the WBC interim super middleweight title fight pitting ProBox TV’s Lester Martinez, of Guatemala, versus Immanuwel Aleem, 22-3-3 (14 KOs), of Virginia.
BoxingScene will have full coverage of that bout later Saturday night.
Earlier, lightweight Samuel Contreras, an unbeaten Los Angeles product also on loan from Top Rank, flashed impressive left hands to the body to set up power rights to the head, quickly weakening Texas’ Cesar Cantu and finishing him by second-round TKO.
Contreras, 21, rocked Cantu, 3-6-2, back to the ropes in the second, and when the referee considered the volume of damage and muted response, he waved the bout over 1 minute, 9 seconds into the frame.
“Sammy is very well-schooled. He’s got a great jab. He’s progressing very well,” Goodman said.
Bantamweight Luis Coria, 5-0 (5 KOs), pummeled veteran Lito Dante, 21-17-4, with body blows and unanswered combinations to the head in the second round, prompting the referee to stop the fight before the third round.
Coria, 19, from nearby Moreno Valley, trains at the Robert Garcia Boxing Academy.
Junior middleweight Kevin Ceja Ventura showcased his superior power and ring generalship while defeating Aaron Watson by three unanimous decision scores of 60-54, improving to 12-1.
Ventura, trained by Saturday main event fighter Lester Martinez’s cornerman, Brian “Bomac” McIntyre, landed a hard left-right combination to Watson’s head in the sixth round to both symbolize the bout and permanently discourage the Riverside, California, fighter.
The scheduled junior welterweight bout between Charles Harris, 11-1 (7 KOs), and Colombia’s Cesar Villarraga, 11-13-1 (5 KOs), was scrapped when Villarraga didn’t gain medical clearance, according to an official.
Lance Pugmire is BoxingScene’s senior U.S. writer and an assistant producer for ProBox TV. Pugmire has covered boxing since the early 2000s, first at the Los Angeles Times and then at The Athletic and USA Today. He won the Boxing Writers’ Association of America’s Nat Fleischer Award in 2022 for career excellence.
