Julio César González

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Julio César González Ibarra (July 30, 1976 – March 10, 2012) was a Mexican professional boxer who competed from 1997 to 2011, and held the WBO and lineal light heavyweight titles from 2003 to 2004.

Amateur career

Gonzalez was a member of the 1996 Mexican Olympic team, boxing as a light heavyweight. He was eliminated in the 1st round by eventual gold medalist Vasili Jirov of Kazakhstan.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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 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. in July 2001, in Los Angeles. 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, Germany for a showdown with undefeated Dariusz Michalczewski for the Lineal & WBO light heavyweight championship. Going into the fight, Michalczewski was positioned to tie Rocky Marciano'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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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 Germany was the lone dissenter.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref name=juliogonzalez.net>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Professional boxing record

Template:Abbr	Result	Record	Opponent	Type	Round, time	Date	Location	Notes
49	Template:No2Loss	41–8	Felipe Romero	UD	12	Sep 30, 2011	Template:Small	Template:Small
48	Template:No2Loss	41–7	Felipe Romero	UD	12	Aug 7, 2010	Template:Small	Template:Small
47	Template:No2Loss	41–6	Tavoris Cloud	TKO	10 (12), Template:Small	Aug 8, 2008	Template:Small
46	Template:No2Loss	41–5	Reggie Johnson	SD	12	Feb 23, 2008	Template:Small	Template:Small
45	Template:No2Loss	41–4	Clinton Woods	UD	12	Sep 29, 2007	Template:Small	Template:Small
44	Template:Yes2Win	41–3	Vitaly Kopytko	TKO	3 (10), Template:Small	Nov 16, 2006	Template:Small
43	Template:Yes2Win	40–3	Rodney Moore	KO	3 (8), Template:Small	Jul 20, 2006	Template:Small
42	Template:Yes2Win	39–3	Jason DeLisle	UD	12	Nov 17, 2005	Template:Small
41	Template:No2Loss	38–3	Clinton Woods	UD	12	Sep 9, 2005	Template:Small	Template:Small
40	Template:Yes2Win	38–2	Montell Griffin	Template:Abbr	6 (12), Template:Small	May 5, 2005	Template:Small	Template:Small
39	Template:Yes2Win	37–2	David Telesco	TKO	8 (10), Template:Small	Dec 18, 2004	Template:Small
38	Template:Yes2Win	36–2	Orlando Rivera	UD	10	May 21, 2004	Template:Small
37	Template:No2Loss	35–2	Zsolt Erdei	UD	12	Jan 17, 2004	Template:Small	Template:Small
36	Template:Yes2Win	35–1	Dariusz Michalczewski	Template:Abbr	12	Oct 18, 2003	Template:Small	Template:Small
35	Template:Yes2Win	34–1	Manu Ntoh	UD	10	Jun 6, 2003	Template:Small
34	Template:Yes2Win	33–1	Kenny Bowman	TKO	3 (10), Template:Small	Apr 11, 2003	Template:Small
33	Template:Yes2Win	32–1	Glen Johnson	MD	10	Jan 24, 2003	Template:Small
32	Template:Yes2Win	31–1	Thomas Reid	TKO	3 (10), Template:Small	Oct 12, 2002	Template:Small
31	Template:Yes2Win	30–1	Jonathan Young	TKO	9 (10), Template:Small	Jun 29, 2002	Template:Small
30	Template:Yes2Win	29–1	Joseph Kiwanuka	TKO	7 (10)	Apr 27, 2002	Template:Small
29	Template:Yes2Win	28–1	Tyrone Armstead	TKO	2 (10), Template:Small	Feb 22, 2002	Template:Small
28	Template:No2Loss	27–1	Roy Jones Jr.	UD	12	Jul 28, 2001	Template:Small	Template:Small
27	Template:Yes2Win	27–0	Konstantin Semerdjiev	RTD	5 (10), Template:Small	Apr 8, 2001	Template:Small
26	Template:Yes2Win	26–0	Julian Letterlough	UD	12	Feb 2, 2001	Template:Small	Template:Small
25	Template:Yes2Win	25–0	Jorge Amparo	TKO	5 (8), Template:Small	Sep 23, 2000	Template:Small
24	Template:Yes2Win	24–0	Patrick Swann	Template:Abbr	4 (12), Template:Small	Jul 29, 2000	Template:Small	Template:Small
23	Template:Yes2Win	23–0	Tony Menefee	TKO	4 (10), Template:Small	Jun 22, 2000	Template:Small
22	Template:Yes2Win	22–0	Jesus Ruiz	TKO	9 (12)	May 5, 2000	Template:Small	Template:Small
21	Template:Yes2Win	21–0	Dave Boone	KO	5 (10)	Mar 11, 2000	Template:Small
20	Template:Yes2Win	20–0	Gary Campbell	KO	2 (8)	Dec 3, 1999	Template:Small
19	Template:Yes2Win	19–0	Wilson Smith	TKO	3 (8), Template:Small	Oct 4, 1999	Template:Small
18	Template:Yes2Win	18–0	Akinobu Yamamura	TKO	3 (8), Template:Small	Jul 31, 1999	Template:Small
17	Template:Yes2Win	17–0	Reggie Roberts	UD	8	Jun 21, 1999	Template:Small
16	Template:Yes2Win	16–0	Francisco Barra	KO	3 (8)	May 14, 1999	Template:Small
15	Template:Yes2Win	15–0	Paul Jones	KO	2 (6), Template:Small	Mar 8, 1999	Template:Small
14	Template:Yes2Win	14–0	Gustavo Enriquez	UD	6	Dec 7, 1998	Template:Small
13	Template:Yes2Win	13–0	Charles Davis	Template:Abbr	6	Sep 26, 1998	Template:Small
12	Template:Yes2Win	12–0	Derrick Edwards	UD	6	Jul 20, 1998	Template:Small
11	Template:Yes2Win	11–0	Aljenon DeBose	KO	4 (6)	Jul 11, 1998	Template:Small
10	Template:Yes2Win	10–0	Calvin Combs	TKO	5 (6)	May 28, 1998	Template:Small
9	Template:Yes2Win	9–0	Jude Agu	UD	6	Mar 26, 1998	Template:Small
8	Template:Yes2Win	8–0	Nathaniel Miles	UD	6	Feb 23, 1998	Template:Small
7	Template:Yes2Win	7–0	Zaire Patterson	UD	4	Dec 8, 1997	Template:Small
6	Template:Yes2Win	6–0	James Brock	KO	2 (4)	Sep 29, 1997	Template:Small
5	Template:Yes2Win	5–0	Charles Jefferson	UD	4	Aug 11, 1997	Template:Small
4	Template:Yes2Win	4–0	Robert Rios	TKO	1 (4)	Jun 27, 1997	Template:Small
3	Template:Yes2Win	3–0	James Brock	Template:Abbr	1 (4)	Jun 9, 1997	Template:Small
2	Template:Yes2Win	2–0	Alex Federov	Template:Abbr	2 (4)	May 30, 1997	Template:Small
1	Template:Yes2Win	1–0	Alex Federov	Template:Abbr	4	Apr 7, 1997	Template:Small

See also

• List of light heavyweight boxing champions
• List of WBO world champions
• List of Mexican boxing world champions

External links

• Template:Boxrec