Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez possible for Canelo-Golovkin 2 undercard on May.5

By Boxing News - 01/16/2018 - Comments

Image: Roman "Chocolatito" Gonzalez possible for Canelo-Golovkin 2 undercard on May.5

By Dan Ambrose: The fading Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez will be fighting in the spring possibly on the undercard of the Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez vs. Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin 2 rematch on May 5. Gonzalez is a former 4-division world champion and pound-for-pound king, but his star taken a big hit recently with him losing his last 2 fights against Srisaket Sor Rungvisai.

It would be in Chocolatito’s best interest to take on a tune-up level opponent if he’s going to fight on the Canelo vs. Golovkin 2 undercard. There will be a lot of boxing fans that will be paying to see the fight card on HBO pay-per-view. It wouldn’t be good for Gonzalez to be seen getting knocked out again or beaten up like he’s been in his last 3 fights against Srisaket So Rungvisai and Carlos Cuadras.

In a sign of stubbornness and naivety, Gonzalez, 30, plans on staying in the super flyweight division despite his 2 losses to Rungvisai and his grueling narrow 12 round unanimous decision loss to Carlos Cuadras. Chocolatito wants to stay at 115 until he dominates the division, according to his Carlos Blandon. There’s no word how long the Nicaraguan Gonzalez will stick it out at super flyweight in the face of his struggles before he gives up on the idea and moves back down to flyweight or better yet, light flyweight.

Sometimes it’s best when fighters give up on misplaced ideas. Gonzalez fighting at super flyweight is clearly a bad idea. His 3 fights in that weight class against Cuadras and Rungvisai [x 2] has shown that he does not have the size, power or the talent to compete on a high level in this weight class. There are fighters the same size as Gonzalez that are doing well in the super flyweight division, but those are guys that use movement and speed to win their fights.

Gonzalez tries to outslug his opponents with the same style he was when he was fighting smaller guys at 105, 108 and 112. Gonzalez was able to overpower fighters in those divisions, but he can’t do it at 115. Those guys are too big, and it’s been shown repeatedly that their too big for Gonzalez. He’s just not getting the hint.

“Roman wants to keep fighting (at junior bantamweight) until he dominates the division and then maybe we will think of an additional title in the following weight division (bantamweight),” Blandon said to ESPN.com. “God will tell. Roman and his new team are ready to kick off the New Year.”

If Chocolatito doesn’t have the size, power, speed or fighting style to find success at super flyweight, he sure isn’t going to do well at bantamweight. That sounds like Chocolatito is misguided and not seeing things clearly. If Gonzalez’s is going to make that move up to 118, he should just do it immediately before he takes too much more punishment at 115 and ended up a shot fighter. At least if Gonzalez moves up in weight now to bantamweight, he won’t be too depleted from taking punishment at super flyweight, and he’ll have a chance of possibly beating IBF/WBA 118 lb. champion Ryan Burnett, who is perceived by many boxing fans as the weak link among the 4 champions in the weight class.