Saturday, February 18, 2012
Staff report
SANTA YNEZ, CALIF.
On Friday night, Billy Lyell had Kelly Pavlik in his corner.
He couldn’t say the same for the judges.
Lyell, a junior middleweight from Niles, lost a 10-round unanimous decision to Jonathan Gonzalez on the undercard of Showtime’s Thomas Dulorme-Aris Ambriz NABF welterweight bout Friday night at the Chumash Casino.
The 27-year-old Lyell (24-11) gave the 22-year-old Gonzalez (15-0) everything he could handle but lost on all three cards, 97-93, 97-93 and 98-92.
It was just the second fight for Gonzalez to go the distance. Gonzalez entered the bout ranked No. 7 in the world by the WBA and WBO.
After fighting several top middleweights over the past few years, Friday’s bout was Lyell’s first big fight at junior middleweight, his natural weight. Gonzalez reportedly needed five tries Friday to make the 156-pound limit. Lyell weighed 153 pounds.
Pavlik made the one-hour drive from Oxnard, Calif., where he has been training with new trainer Robert Garcia. Both Pavlik and Lyell were trained for many years at Jack Loew’s Southside Boxing Club.
Lyell is now trained by Keith Burnside of the downtown Burnside Boxing Club and managed by Youngstown’s Pat Nelson.
It was the latest close defeat for Lyell, who last year lost a 10-round unanimous decision to undefeated Julio Cesar Chavez Jr. in Chavez’s native Mexico.
In October, Lyell lost a 12-round majority decision to undefeated Dominik Britsch in his native Germany.