Nicaraguan Roman Gonzalez (33-0, 28) seeks to make the 5th defense of his WBA Light Flyweight this coming weekend as he faces once beaten Mexican Juan Francisco Estrada (22-1, 18) in what promises to be an explosive encounter on Showtime.
For my money, Gonzalez (otherwise known as El Chocolatito), is one of the sports true premier level fighters. Although he's generally over-looked by the sport's casual fans the hardcore fan know all about the super skilled, powerful, fast and aggressive Gonzalez who at times looks genuinely unbeatable. In fact in a career spanning 7 years Gonzalez has only been involved in 1 close bout (a majority decision win over Francisco Rosas).
Starting as a teenager, Gonzalez's rise to the top was swift. Within 2 years of his professional debut he had already earned high rankings at both Light Flyweight and Minimumweight thanks to wins over notable opponents including Eriberto Gejon, Miguel Tellez and Jose Luis Varela. Just a year later however Gonzalez showed his class at world level widely out pointing Yutaka Niida for the WBA Minimumweight title to claim his first world title.
As the WBA Minimumweight champion, Gonzalez made 3 title defenses beating Francisco Rosas (as mentioned above), Katsunari Takayama and Ivan Meneses before moving up to Light Flyweight. At Light Flyweight, Gonzalez looked even more dominating, stopping Francisco Rosas in 2 rounds for the interim WBA Light Flyweight title.
After Juan Carlos Reveco moved from Light Flyweight to Flyweight, Gonzalez's title was upgraded from the interim to the regular title. Since then Gonzalez has scored 6 successive victories, including 4 title defenses in which he has beaten Manuel Vargas, Omar Salado, Omar Soto and Ramon Garcia Hirales, all credible challengers.
If Floyd Mayweather Jr is the best defensive fighter in the sport right now then I'd be tempted to say that Gonzalez is the best offensive fighter in the sport right now. The Nicaraguan rarely loses more than a round, he's supremely confident in not only his abilities (which are amazing) but also his durability, often enjoying a war and his power (which suits him well during a war). I dare say that to beat Gonzalez you need to be a bit of a tank who can take one to land one or you manage to land a lucky bomb on Gonzalez when he leaps in on the offensive. In fact the way Gonzalez can leap in at times is pretty much his only real flaw, thankfully however very few fighter can make him pay for this mistake.
Whilst Gonzalez is a known quantity it's fair to say that Mexican challenger Juan Francisco Estrada is much less well known. Despite having been in 23 bouts as a professional, Estrada has only faced a handful of known opponents including current IBF Super Flyweight champion, who out pointed Estrada in 2011 and Filipino Ardin Diale who was stopped in 2 rounds. Those two aside however Estrada lacks the sort of wins to really know what he's made of.
What we do know about the 22 year old "El Gallo" is that he's a hard hitter, at least at the lower levels. He can dig to the body or the head and although not the most skilled he's not a fighter that many will want to get into a war with. He's never been stopped, though has been down (dropped by Sanchez) however he's admittedly never been in with someone approaching Gonzalez's level of power, speed, combinations of spitefulness.
In all honestly I'd be shocked if Gonzalez did anything other than made a statement. He'll be looking to finish this and finish it early, and it's probably fair to say Estrada has been brought in as the opponent to allow Gonzalez to look good. Expect this to be a fun war though one that Gonzalez's all round game will dominate.
Prediction: Gonzalez TKO5
No comments:
Post a Comment