By: Sean Crose
Juan Francisco Estrada fought for the WBC super flyweight title Saturday night in Glendale, Arizona by taking on the legendary Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez for the third time. The first battle between the two men took place in 2012 which saw Gonzalez win. The opposite happened when the two men met again in 2021. Now the fighting world will find out who will be able to take down the best three between these two great boxers.
Gonzalez 51-3 managed to position to land well the first time around while Estrada 43-3 tried to take control of the geography. Estrada started to land in the second minute while Gonzalez still hadn’t really pulled the trigger. Surprisingly, the crowd started booing. Estrada fought well after the stab in the third round, but Gonzalez finally started to combine his punches. The round ended in a grand manner, with Estrada looking wounded, but fighting tenaciously. Wednesday is an interesting one. Gonzalez landed well, but Estrada was the more aggressive of the two, rocking his men late in the round.
By the fifth inning, it was clear that while Gonzalez certainly had his moments, Estrada didn’t allow him too many of them. The Mexicans’ great control of the range is telling the story of the war. The sixth inning saw Gonzalez continue to advance, but again, he couldn’t consistently do a good job against the more aggressive Estrada, who didn’t seem to slow down at all. Chocolatito landed well in the seventh round, but he no longer seemed capable of taking down opponents.
In the eighth inning, however, Gonzalez finally seemed to have reached his man, making good pursuit and landing well in Estrada. Ninth is a very difficult ring to call. Estrada throws and lands more, but Gonzalez is clearly a tougher, more damaging puncher. The tenth is a blur, with each man heading away to assert himself. Estrada may have made it eleventh thanks to the action and powerful punch, but it’s VERY hard to say. The twelfth and final round was an intense match with an angry Estrada shooting away while Chocolatito injured it. Estrada won by majority decision with the scores 114-114, 116-112, 115-113.
“If he wants the fourth fight, I think we can,” Estrada said later in the post-match interview.
