By Jeff Aranow: Following a request by K2 Promotions, the World Boxing Council has given the green light to a rematch between newly crowned WBC super flyweight champion Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (43-4-1, 39 KOs) and former WBC champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (46-1, 38 KOs) by ordering a rematch between them. Gonzalez lost a disputed 12 round majority decision to Rungvisai on March 18 last month at Madison Square Garden in New York. The judges scored the fight 114-112, 114-112, and 113-113. the 29-year-old Gonzalez was knocked down by a right hand to the body in round 1. It was a flash knockdown. In round 6, Rungvisai lost a point for a head-butt.
The reasoning by the WBC to order the Rungvisai-Gonzalez rematch was the closeness of the fight, as well as the head-butt that occurred in which Gonzalez suffered a bad cut over his right eye. The WBC also factored in the huge interest from the boxing world in a second contest between the two flyweight warriors.
The winner of the Rungvisai vs. Gonzalez II fight must face the winner of the Carlos Cuadras vs. Juan Francisco Estrada fight, which the WBC also ordered. Gonzalez was originally supposed to face Cuadras if he’d been able to beat Rungvisai on March 18. Both fighters competed on the same card, which headlined by middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin vs. Daniel Jacobs. Cuadras beat David Carmona by an unimpressive 10 round unanimous decision on the card. The judges scored the fight 96-94, 97-93 and 97-93. The fight was very close. The 96-94 scored seemed fair.
You can argue that Carmona did enough to beat Cuadras, who was exposed in that fight to be a limited fighter with stamina issues. Gonzalez’s loss and Cuadras’ poor performance took a lot of the air out of fan interest in a rematch between those two fighters. Gonzalez defeated Cuadras by a close 12 round unanimous decision on September 10 last year. There were a lot of fans that were interested in seeing Gonzalez and Cuadras fight again until their recent performances on March 18.
Here’s what WBC president Mauricio Sulaiman said in a statement on Tuesday:
“The WBC Board of Governors considers that due to the extraordinary fight, which was extremely close and considering that the WBC championship rules regarding accidental head butts were not used, but most importantly, considering a public demand to witness once again a great match between these 2 great fighters, the WBC has granted the request by unanimous vote to order the rematch between Sor Rungvisai and Gonzalez.”
Roman Gonzalez needs to improve his defensive skills and his mobility before he faces Rungvisai a second time. The fighter from Thailand was the bigger puncher of the two, and he was able to nail the flat-footed Gonzalez all night long with big power shots to the head. It was lucky for Gonzalez that Rungvisai got on his bike in the last 3 rounds of the fight, because he was taking a lot of punishment from him. Gonzalez took a real beating from Rungvisai despite making it close.
The only reason why the fight was close was because of Gonzalez throwing a lot of shots in the last part of the fight. Rungvisai had problems with Gonzalez’s body punching more than anything. If Gonzalez had kept throwing to the body in the last 2 rounds, he might have gotten Rungvisai out of there. It was impossible for Gonzalez to land his body shots even if he wanted to because Rungvisai was on the move in the last 3 rounds to keep from getting taken out. It was a smart way for Rungvisai to fight because he clearly knew that he had the lead in the fight and he didn’t need to stand and trade with Gonzalez.
Gonzalze needs to think seriously about moving back down in weight to the flyweight division because he does not have the size to be fighting guys like Rungvisai and Cuadras. Those guys are bigger than him, and with more power. Gonzalez’s punches did nothing to the faces of Cuadras and Rungvisai. But those fighter’ shots did a lot of damage to Gonzalez’s face. The reason for that is they’re so much bigger than him.
Here’s the other part of the WBC’s order of the Rungvisai vs. Gonzalez fight:
“The WBC convention ruling had ordered the winner of march 18 to fight Carlos Cuadras and considering that the rematch will not take place in some time due to the medical suspension of both fighters, the WBC is ordering an interim championship between the two highest available contenders, Carlos Cuadras vs. Juan Francisco Estrada. The winners of both fights (Srisaket vs. Gonzalez and Cuadras vs. Estrada), must fight each other next. The WBC is very much pleased with this ruling that will provide a series of great fights in the super flyweight, which is very important for boxing and for the boxers.”
If Gonzalez takes another beating against Rungvisai, he might not be able to make it through the entire fight in my opinion. Gonzalez has the wrong type of fighting style for a big puncher like Rungvisai. Gonzalez needs to adapt and change his fighting style by becoming more mobile. His old fighting style, which was helpful when he was fighting in the lower weight classes, is not suited for the super flyweight division.
Hughie Fury to come into the Joseph Parker fight the heaviest of his career says Peter Fury
Unbeaten #1 WBO heavyweight contender Hughie Fury (20-0, 10 KOs) is bulking up for his title shot against WBO heavyweight champion Joseph Parker (22-0, 18 KOs) for their fight next month on May 6 at the Vector Arena, in Auckland, New Zealand. 22-year-old Hughie’s dad/trainer Peter Fury says he’s bulking up for the fight and he expects him o be the highest weight of his career when he gets inside the ring on the night. The 6’6” Hughie weighed in at 231 pounds in his last fight against Fred Kassi on April 30 last year. Hughie looked very tired in that fight, which was stopped due to a cut that Hughie suffered from a clash of heads in round 6.
“Hughie is not ailing anymore,” said Peter Fury to ESPN.com. “He’s in very, very good condition. He’s averaging a pound or two a week in added weight so he’s going to come in his heaviest but also his leanest. He’ll be in fine condition. When you’re an away fighter, you’ve got it all to do and you’ve got to take it off the champion. You don’t expect to get a fair, crystal clear decision – you have to go and take it.”
It might be a mistake for Hughie to be putting on a lot of weight for this fight against Parker, because he had stamina problems in his last fight. The last thing that Hughie needs is for him to be slow and unable to fight hard for the full 12 rounds. Hughie would be better off using movement to stay out of range of the bigger punching Parker.
There are not too many people in the boxing world giving Hughie a chance to pull off he upset to beat Parker. He’s giving away too much in the way of power to the 6’4” Parker. More importantly, he lacks the stamina to be carrying around a bunch of extra weight. When a fighter does bulk up, it’s better for them to test out the new weigh against a lesser fighter rather than a world champion.