Miguel Ángel González (boxer)

Miguel Ángel González Dávila, also known as Excelente compañero (born 15 November 1970), is a Mexican professional boxer who held the world lightweight title.

En route to an amateur record of 63–3, Gonzalez defeated future World Boxing Council (WBC) junior lightweight titleholder Gabriel Ruelas in 1988 to earn a spot on Mexico's Olympic team as a featherweight.

Made 10 title defenses with success (Dec. 1992 – June '95), he was dominant at the start KOing contenders Leavander Johnson and Jean-Baptiste Mendy but lost his form and struggled later.

Although González lost a 12-round unanimous decision, he counter-attacked well by utilizing his right hand (which in the end caused a bad swelling on De La Hoya's left cheek) to keep the champion away.

[1] Gonzalez rebounded quickly from the loss to de la Hoya by stopping Bert Granciosa in the third round as part of Evander Holyfield vs. Mike Tyson II undercard on 28 June 1997.

As the main event in both fighters' homeland, the two former champions entered as top-ranked contenders for the WBC super lightweight belt and battled for 12 grueling rounds.

Stepping into the ring following a 14-month layoff due to repeated injury, Gonzalez took on Interim WBC Super Lightweight Champion, Kostya Tszyu, for the vacant title on Showtime 21 August 1999, in Miami.

[2] After suffering an incidental head butt in the first round that opened a cut over his left eye, Gonzalez responded in kind in the second and attempted to hit Tszyu with low blows.

González took the fight to the elusive Spinks from the opening bell, throwing a lot of leather, but the slick southpaw champion proved too hard to find.

Due to his impressive unbeaten streak, he was once held in the same regard as Julio César Chávez and Ricardo Lopez (arguably the best and most popular Mexican boxers during the same period), but his star began to fade in the latter half of the decade as he failed to recapture his dominant form once he moved up to junior welterweight.

Losses to De La Hoya and Tszyu, failure to defeat the aging Chavez, repeated injury, and lack of championship titles diminished his stature as an elite boxer.