By Jeff Aranow: Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (46-1, 38 KOs) will be back inside the ring in 3 months from now fighting a rematch against Srisaket Sor Rungvisai (43-4-1, 39 KOs) on September 9, according to RingTV.com. The WBC ordered the rematch between Gonzalez and Rungvisai, as there were a lot of complaints from the boxing fans, who felt that the decision should have gone the other way.
Gonzalez was a bloody mess by the end of the fight due to his face being cut to ribbons from the head-butts that he’d sustained in the fight.
The venue for the Gonzalez-Rungvisai fight still hasn’t been decided, but Los Angeles, California is one possibility. The undercard of the Gonzalez vs. Rungvisai II could have #2 WBC Carlos Cuadras (36-1-1, 27 KOs) facing #3 WBC Juan Francisco Estrada (35-2, 25 KOs) for the WBC interim super flyweight title. The winner of the Cuadras vs. Estrada fight would then face the winner of the Gonzalez vs. Rungvisai II fight.
It’ll be a great card of K2 Promotions can get Cuadras-Estrada as the co-feature bout. It would set up an excellent fight down the road with the winner of both fights facing each other for the WBC super flyweight title. Gonzalez already beat Cuadras and Estrada in the not so distance past in grueling fights. Cuadras gave Gonzalez all he could handle last year in September in losing a close 12 round unanimous decision.
Gonzalez’s face was badly swollen from the heavy blows from Cuadras. In contrast, Cuadras’ face looked relatively unmarked. Gonzalez got the better of Cuadras with his high work rate and combination punching. Gonzalez stayed close to Cuadras and was constantly hitting him with shots. Gonzalez tried to use that same style against Rungvisai and it was a lot less effective, because it caused him to take a lot of punishment.
Gonzalez lost his WBC super flyweight title to Rungvisai on March 18 in losing a 12 round majority decision at Madison Square Garden. The judges’ scores were 114-112, 114-112 and 113-113. A lot of boxing fans felt that Gonzalez won the fight. It was close. Rungvisai looked like he’d done enough to earn the victory based on the 1st round knockdown and the early rounds that he’d put in the bank. Gonzalez seemed out of his class early in the fight due to the size and power of Rungvisai.
Both guys were the same height at 5’3”, but Rungvisai looked a lot heavier than Gonzalez and much more powerful. Gonzalez’s punching power didn’t carry up with him when he moved from flyweight to super flyweight. Gonzalez is not going to be able to dominate in this weight class like he’d done at flyweight, light flyweight and minimumweight.
This is a risky fight for the 29-year-old Gonzalez to be taking. Rungvisai seemed to have his number through most of their fight last March. Gonzalez came on at the end with his pressure, high volume punching, and body shots to gives Rungvisai problems. Rungvisai was able to elude Gonzalez with movement and jabbing to preserve his win. It was a tough fight for Gonzalez, as he suffered two bad cuts from head-butts.
Rungvisai, who comes from Thailand, clashed heads with Gonzalez frequently during the fight. Gonzlez got the worst of it almost every time there was a clash of heads. Rungvisai was coming forward with his head down, so the crowd of his head was hitting Gonzalez in the face often. In the 6th round, Rungvisai was penalized 1 point for head-butting Gonzalez. Whether you want to say it was intentional or not, the fact of the matter is, Rungvisai was hitting Gonzalez with head frequently.
That’s one of the reasons why this is a risky fight for Gonzalez, because he’s not a mobile a fighter, and he doesn’t have the style to get out of the way of Rungvisai with his head-butting. Carlos Cuadras had problems with Rungvisai too in his fight with him in 2014. Cuadras used quick combinations and was constantly on the move to avoid getting head-butted.
Unfortunately for Cuadras, it didn’t help him, as he was cut badly over his left eye from a clash of heads in the 8th. The fight was then stopped and it went to the scorecards. Cuadras won the fight by an 8 round technical decision. Cuadras was smart enough not to stand in front of Rungvisai. He obviously realized that if he stood stationary, he would get head-butted.
Never the less, Cuadras still ended up getting cut by Rungvisai anyway, and the fight had to be stopped. Roman Gonzalez is going to need to use mobility if he wants to keep from getting accidently head-butted by Rungvisai. He’s not doing it on purpose. The head-butts are a product of the way that Rungvisai comes forward to throw his power shots.
The loss for Roman Gonzalez did more than take away his unbeaten record and World Boxing Council super flyweight title, it also caused him to lose his status as the No.1 pound for pound fighter with Ring Magazine. For some fighters, that’s a big deal, because a lot of the hardcore boxing fans care about the pound for pound ratings. Obviously, the casual boxing fans don’t follow that kind of stuff and don’t care much at all. They just want to see a good fight involving talented fighters. Gonzalez vs. Rungvisai I was not a good fight due to all the head-butting that took place.
In the later rounds, the fight lacked excitement because Rungvisai got on his bike and used movement to escape the pressure from Gonzalez. The head shots that Gonzalez was throwing didn’t bother Rungvisai too much, but the body punching clearly did. Gonzalez was giving Rungvisai major issues with his body shots. Gonzalez is mostly a head hunter unfortunately. I don’t think he realized how much damage he was doing when he was throwing body shots during the fight.
Gonzalez is going to need to change his fighting style if he wants to continue to have success with his boxing career. He doesn’t belong at super flyweight, but it looks like he’s going to stay at this weight rather than moving back down to flyweight.