Pearl Gonzalez (@PearlGonzalez) had a lot of anticipation behind her Bare Knuckle debut especially with her moving to New York and training with women’s pound for pound great Amanda Serrano. Jordan Maldonado (who trains Gonzalez along with Amanda and her sister Cindy; his wife) broke down Gonzalez fighting style for her move into BK. Gonzalez came from MMA and had to eliminate that type of striking from her mind and throughout the camp the focused on the basics i.e. the jab and right cross. Gonzalez worked those two punches for a majority of the fight.
From the opening bell Gonzalez took control and almost put Charisa Sigala down with a jab. Her combinations followed the jab and she was able to avoid most of Sigalas’s best punches.
The second round was similar to the first round except Sigala found some success but it was not much. The remainder of the fight proved to be the same and Gonzalez went on to win a unanimous decision.
After the fight Gonzalez broke down the move to Brooklyn and what happened in training camp.
“Moving to Brooklyn with team Serrano has been one of the best moves in my life,” stated Gonzalez in her post fight interview. “Jordan took my boxing and demolished it and reconstructed it from the ground up. All we worked this camp was ones and twos, basics, stance, structure, balance and that’s what I came in here to show is that I’m not a brawler. I’m a Mixed Martial Artist that’s learning to be a boxer and I’m gonna come in here and I’m gonna show technique and skill and every fucking day I’m getting better! Watch the fuck out!”
