Joet Gonzalez defeats Miguel Marriaga in impressive performance

Joet Gonzalez returned to the ring for the first time since losing to Shakur Stevenson in October of 2019. He took Miguel Marriaga to school.

Featherweights Joet Gonzalez and Miguel Marriaga met on Saturday, Sept. 12, on the undercard of Top Rank’s Egidijus Kavaliauskas vs. Mikael Zewski main event. It proved to be a good night for Gonzalez.

Gonzalez (24-1, 14 KOs) was undefeated before losing his title shot against Shakur Stevenson almost a year ago. It was a one-sided fight, but Gonzalez looked renewed against Marriaga.

Marriaga (29-4, 25 KOs) is no slouch. He fought for a world title on three occasions but lost all of those fights.

Marriaga tried to bring the fight to Gonzalez in the first round. He targeted Gonzalez’s body early, but Gonzalez returned with healthy right crosses to Marriaga’s head. It was an active opening round that could have gone either way.

Gonzalez got backed against the ropes in round 2, but Marriaga didn’t take advantage. They brawled at center ring trading punches. Gonzalez started to open up, and his shots were heavier than Marriaga’s.

Joet Gonzalez took the next step in his career, with an impressive performance against Miguel Marriaga.

Marriaga put more steam on his punches in round 3. He often scored on Gonzalez, who never moved his shoulders and head. He was content with absorbing Marriaga’s blows. Gonzalez returned with power punches that scored. Gonzalez appeared to hurt Marriaga with a right hand.

Gonzalez had Marriaga retreating for much of round 4. He hurt Marriaga several times with his straight right hand to the head. Marriaga fought back, but his punches didn’t make a dent in Gonzalez’s armor.

Gonzalez easily dominated the remainder of the fight. Marriaga couldn’t hurt him, and he walked through Marriaga’s punches without a problem.

He also hurt Marriaga in round 7 and tried for the knockout in round 10, but Marriaga proved to be resilient.

The only adversity Gonzalez faced was a cut that opened up under his right eye in round 9. It started to bleed badly in the 10th round, but it didn’t bother him as he punished Marriaga with his right cross.

Gonzalez won a clear unanimous decision with no drama. It was the return performance he needed to put the Stevenson loss behind him.