Julio César González

A top-ranked contender of the Light-Heavyweight Division during the 2000s, he battled some of the biggest names of that weight-class during the decade. Born Julio Cesar Gonzalez Ibarra, he was raised in the Far Western region of Mexico and began training as a boxer during his youth, later fighting in the Amateur ranks. He was accomplished enough to earn a spot on his native Mexican Olympic Boxing Team, but was eliminated during the first-round at the 1996 Summer Games in Atlanta. Less than a year later, he turned professional and racked-up an impressive 27 straight wins without a defeat, capturing the vacant IBA Continental Light-Heavyweight Crown with a 12-round unanimous decision over Julian Letterlough on February 2nd, 2001. Five months later, he fought the highly-regarded Roy Jones, Jr. in a world championship title fight which saw several primary belts on the line, among them the WBC, IBF and WBF Light-Heavyweight Crowns. He gutted out a 12-round decision loss to the champion. Gonzalez earned a 12-round split decision victory over the Polish fighter Dariusz Michalczewski to capture the WBO Light-Heavyweight crown on October 18th, 2003. A 6-round technical decision win over former world champion Montell Griffin in 2005 set-up another chance at the IBF Title four months later. He dropped a 12-round decision to the British boxer Clinton Woods for the belt and lost a rematch with Woods in identical fashion two years later. He compiled a 41 win (25 knockouts) and 8 loss record. Gonzalez had the distinction of being knocked out only once during his career. He was still an active boxer at the time of his death from a hit-and-run accident.