Julio César González Ibarra (July 30, 1976 – March 10, 2012) was a Mexican

professional boxer Professional boxing, or prizefighting, is regulated, sanctioned boxing. Professional boxing bouts are fought for a purse that is divided between the boxers as determined by contract. Most professional fights are supervised by a regulatory auth ...

who competed from 1997 to 2011, and held the

WBO The World Boxing Organization (WBO) is an organization which sanctions professional boxing bouts. It is recognized by the International Boxing Hall of Fame (IBHOF) as one of the four major world championship groups, alongside the World Boxin ...

and lineal

light heavyweight Light heavyweight is a weight class in combat sports. Boxing Professional In professional boxing, the division is above and up to , falling between super middleweight and cruiserweight (boxing), cruiserweight. The light heavyweight class has ...

titles from 2003 to 2004.

Amateur career

Gonzalez was a member of the 1996 Mexican Olympic team, boxing as a

. He was eliminated in the 1st round by eventual gold medalist Vasili Jirov of Kazakhstan.

Professional career

He entered the professional boxing ranks in 1997 after a moderately successful amateur career and gradually worked his way through the ranks of the light heavyweight journeymen. He had won his first 21 fights by the time he got his first chance at a boxing title, the regional WBC Fecarbox belt, on May 5, 2000. He defeated unbeaten fellow Mexican Jesus Ruiz on a ninth round technical

knockout A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, Muay Thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, ...

in Commerce, California. Gonzalez followed that victory up with five more wins, including a 12-round unanimous decision over Julian Letterlough on February 2, 2001, that won him the regional NABO light heavyweight title - and propelled him into the No. 1 contender's position in several sanctioning bodies' ratings. As the top contender, he earned a fight with WBC, WBA (Super), & IBF champion

Roy Jones Jr. Roy Levesta Jones Jr. (born January 16, 1969) is an American professional boxer. He has held multiple world championships in four weight classes, including middleweight, super middleweight, light heavyweight and heavyweight. As an amateur he r ...

in July 2001, in

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. Gonzalez went the distance with Jones, but lost a unanimous decision for his first career setback. He took seven months off after the loss to Jones before resuming his career and running off seven straight wins without a loss. Most notable in his comeback streak was a 10-round majority decision over former world champion Glen Johnson on January 24, 2003.

WBO and lineal light heavyweight champion

Gonzalez earned his second shot at a world title on October 18, 2003, when he flew to

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg,. is the List of cities in Germany by population, second-largest city in Germany after Berlin and List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, 7th-lar ...

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for a showdown with undefeated

Dariusz Michalczewski Dariusz Tomasz Michalczewski (born 5 May 1968) is a Polish-German professional boxer who competed from 1991 to 2005. He held multiple world championships in two weight classes, including the WBA, IBF, WBO and lineal light heavyweight titles ...

for the Lineal &

light heavyweight championship. Going into the fight, Michalczewski was positioned to tie

Rocky Marciano Rocco Francis Marchegiano (September 1, 1923 – August 31, 1969; ), better known as Rocky Marciano (, ), was an American professional boxer who competed from 1947 to 1955. He held the world heavyweight championship from 1952 to 1956, and re ...

's all-time record of 49 wins and no losses. He also was looking to extend his own world record of 23 straight successful defenses of the light heavyweight title. In the fight, Gonzalez seemed to take control of the action in the middle rounds, and fought back strongly when Michalczewski, a knockout artist, got him in trouble a few times. When the fight was over, Gonzalez got the verdict on a 12-round split decision; the judge from

was the lone dissenter. Gonzalez lost his title to Zsolt Erdei on January 17, 2004, by unanimous decision. He challenged Clinton Woods for the IBF light heavyweight title on September 9, 2005, losing by unanimous decision. He met Woods again in a title fight rematch on September 29, 2007. Woods again won the fight by unanimous decision. In 2008 he was stopped by undefeated prospect Tavoris Cloud.

Death

On March 10, 2012, Gonzalez was killed on impact in a motorcycle accident when he was hit by a drunk driver in B.C. Sur, Mexico. The Julio Gonzalez Memorial Foundation was started in his memory.

Professional boxing record

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gonzalez, Julio Cesar 1976 births 2012 deaths Boxers from Baja California Sur World Boxing Organization champions Road incident deaths in Mexico Motorcycle road incident deaths Olympic boxers for Mexico Boxers at the 1996 Summer Olympics Mexican male boxers Cruiserweight boxers World light-heavyweight boxing champions People from Mulegé Municipality