Roman Gonzalez: Estrada beat Rungvisai, it’s not fair!

By Boxing News - 02/25/2018 - Comments

Image: Roman Gonzalez: Estrada beat Rungvisai, it’s not fair!

By Allan Fox: Former multi-division world champion and #1 pound-for-pound fighter Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez says Juan Francisco ‘Gallo’ Estrada defeated WBC super flyweight champion Sriskaket Sor Rungvisai last Saturday night, and should have been given the decision in their fight on the SuperFly2 card at The Forum in Inglewood, California.

The judges thought differently, scoring the fight 117-111, 115-111 for Rungvisai and 114-114. Gonzalez states that Estrada beat Rungvisai by 2 or 3 points last Saturday night. Gonzalez compares the controversy over Estrada’s loss to Rungvisai as his own defeat to him in their first fight last March.

Rungvisai beat Gonzalez by a 12 round majority decision in a fight that some boxing fans that should have gone to ‘Chocolatito.’ Rungvisai knocked Gonzalez down in that fight, and finished strong by out-boxing him in the championship rounds to cement his victory. Gonzalez’s face was badly swollen at the end of the first fight with Rungvisai. Whether that influenced the judges or not is open to debate. The condition of Gonzalez’s face made it hard to view him as the winner against Rungviai.

There were 7,827 boxing fans on hand last Saturday night for the Rungvisai-Estrada fight at The Forum, and most of them were Estrada fans. The fans booed the final decision, and continued to boo while Rungvisai was being interviewed afterward. The punch states favored Rungvisai with him landing 194 of 879 shots. 95 percent of Rungvisai’s punches were power shots. Estrada landed fewer punches in connecting on 189 of 671 shots. Even though Estrada landed almost as many punches as Rungvsai, he wasn’t throwing power shots nearly as much. Even if Estrada did land the same amount of power shots, the difference in power between his punches and Rungvisai would have still favored the Thailand fighter. He’s a far bigger puncher than Estrada.

Gonzalez, 30, admired how Estrada boxed Rungvisai, and he says he’d like to fight either of the 2 fighters. Gonzalez has already lost 2 times to Rungvisai, although he maintains that he should have been given the decision in their first fight last March. Rungvisai beat Chocolatito by a 12 round majority decision.

“(Estrada) did a good job, and won the fight. He and his entire team did a good job,” Chocolatito said to TN8 in Nicaragua. ”I would like to face him. For me, sincerely, he (Estrada) won the fight,” Gonzalez said.

Estrada was staying on the outside and constantly backing up, and running from Rungvisai in rounds 1 through 8. Estrada waited until Rungvisai began to tire in the championship rounds (10, 11 and 12) before he started to attack him in a meaningful way. It was too little too late for Estrada. He looked like he might have edged the 10th, and he clearly won the 12th. Estrada was dominated in the 9th and 11th rounds. Estrada simply didn’t do enough in the last 6 rounds for him to make up for having lost 5 out of the first 6 rounds of the fight. Estrada wasn’t fighting courageously in the first 6 rounds, and that hurt his chances of winning.

Gonzalez might be seen as having sour grapes over his 2 losses to Rungvisai. Saying that Estrada won might be viewed by boxing fans as Gonzalez having a hard time coming to terms with how badly he was beaten by Rungvisai, and dethroned as the No.1 pound-for-pound fighter in boxing. Rungvisai gave Gonzalez a beating in both of their fights in 2017.

The judges leaned in favor of Rungivai is because it took Estrada too long to get his offense engaged. It wasn’t until round 8 that Estrada started to let his hands go. Rungvisai outworked Estrada in rounds 1, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7. Estrada did well in the 8th and 12th rounds. Rungvisai landed the better shots in rounds 9, 10 and 11.

Estrada fought well in the last 30 seconds of round 2. Rungivsai controlled the first 2 ½ minutes of the round, but then Estrada landed several shots in the last 30 seconds that got the boxing fans excited. It was a round that Rungvisai would have likely won if the fight had taken place at a neutral venue. The cheering that Estrada received from the fans each time he would land a shot, it likely influenced the judge that scored it 114-114. The fight did not look like a draw, and not a win for Estrada. He was outworked by Rungvisai.

“It does not seem fair to me,” Gonzalez continued in talking of the Rungvisai vs. Estrada results. This is happened the same, the same fight that I fought (in the first fight with Rungvisai). It is sadness in the world of boxing. ‘Gallo’ Estrada did a good job…We are not blind; (Estrada) won clear, two points, three points. I do not understand, but that’s the way of boxing,” Gonzalez said.

Promoter Tom Loeffler is interested in putting together a rematch between Rungvisai and Estrada. Both fighters indicated that they would like to face each other. It might not be any better for Estrada, 27, in the rematch if he’s going to move around the ring and not let his hands go like in last night’s fight. Estrada counter punched well at times, but Rungvisai’s powerful body shots that he constantly was landing made it hard to give the rounds to the Mexican fighter.

The pro-Estrada crowd made it seem like he was doing better than he actually was. Estrada looked worried about getting hit by Rungvisai’s heavy shots, and that’s why he was running around the ring for the first 7 rounds and not throwing punches. HBO had Rungvisai up 6 rounds to 1 by the time Estrada started fighting a little better in round 8. By that point in the fight, Estrada needed to sweep the remaining rounds in order for him to just receive a draw. He wasn’t going to be able to do that with his weak punches, and his reluctance to stand and fight Rungvisai in a one-on-one battle.

To make the Rungvisai-Estrada rematch fair, they need to stage the fight in a neutral venue where the crowd isn’t going to be predominately Estrada fans. Placing the second Rungvisai-Rungvisai fight in Los Angeles, California will result in the crowd favoring Estrada once again. That’ll put Rungvisai in a situation where he may need to knock Estrada out to keep his boxing fans from saying he was robbed.

Before Loeffler puts together the Rungvisai-Estrada rematch, he should consider having Chocolatito Gonzalez and Estrada fight each other. The winner of the Chocolatito vs. Estrada fight could then face Rungvisai. That would be the better option than to have a grumbling Estrada be given a rematch straightaway against Rungvisai, because there are too many boxing fans who didn’t see Estrada as having won the fight. These are neutral fans that weren’t pulling for Estrada to win going in. The neutral fans felt Rungvisai clearly won the fight, and it would be doing them a huge disservice to waste their time by HBO staging a needless Rungvisai-Estrada rematch right away. If Estrada wants a rematch, he should at least prove that he can beat Roman Gonzalez to earn the shot. Estrada lost to Gonzalez by a 12 round unanimous decision in November 2012. Gonzalez won by the scores 118-111, 116-112 and 116-112. Gonzalez beat Estrada with pressure in the same way that Rungvisai did. It was a clear win. If Estrada wants a second fight with Rungvisai, he should prove that he can beat Gonzalez and/or McWilliams Arroyo.