Srisaket Sor Rungvisai vs Juan Francisco Estrada to have vacant RING 115lb. title on line

By Boxing News - 02/02/2018 - Comments

Image: Srisaket Sor Rungvisai vs Juan Francisco Estrada to have vacant RING 115lb. title on line

By Jim Dower: Srisaket Sor Rungvisai and Juan Francisco Estrada will have the vacant RING Magazine super flyweight title on the line for their February 24th fight at “SuperFly 2” at The Forum in Inglewood, California.

Rungvisai (44-4-1, 40 KOs) will be defending his WBC super flyweight title against #1 mandatory challenger Estrada (36-2, 25 KOs) in this fight card televised on HBO Boxing. Rungvisai and Estrada will be mixing it up in the main event of a load card with 3 good undercard fights.

Estrada beat Carlos Cuadras by a by a 12 round unanimous decision at “SuperFly 1” last September. It was a razor thin victory for Estrada with him winning by the scores 114-113 x 3. Cuadras would have won the fight easily if he didn’t tire in the second half of the contest ad give away the championship rounds to Estrada.

On paper, Rungvisai would seem to have a considerable edge over the 27-year-old Estrada with him being the bigger and stronger fighter of the two. 6 years ago, Estrada lost to Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores 118-110, 116-112 and 116-112 in November 2012. Rungvisai is coming off of a 4th round knockout victory over Chocolatito at SuperFly 1 on September 9th last year at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.

Rungvisai, 31, knocked Gonzalez down 2 times in round 4. The second knockdown resulted in ‘Choclatito’ being knocked out cold. That was a devastating knockout win for the Thailand fighter, and it was the second time that he beat Chocolatito. Rungvisai is looking like an entirely different fighter from the one that lost to Carlos Cuadras by an 8th round technical decision 4 years ago in May 2014.

Rungvisai would likely chew Cuadras up and spit him out if the two of them were to fight each other now. They’re going in different directions career-wise. Cuadras lost his last fight to Estrada by a close 12 round unanimous decision last September at SuperFly 1.

The undercard of “SuperFly 2” will have IBF World flyweight champion Donnie Nietes (40-4-1, 22 KOs) fighting Juan Carlos Reveco (39-3, 19 KOs). Flyweight Brian Viloria (38-5, 23 KOs) will be fighting Artem Dalakian (15-0, 11 KOs) for the vacant WBA World flyweight title. It’s hard to say which of these fighters will win this fight. Viloria, 37, has been counted out by boxing fans in the past, but he keeps resurrecting his career with big wins to remain one of the top fighters in the flyweight division.

In the co-feature bout on “SuperFly 2”, former WBC super flyweight champion Carlos Cuadras (36-2-1, 27 KOs) will be fighting McWilliams Arroyo (16-3, 14 KOs) for the vacant WBC Silver super flyweight title. The 29-year-old Cuadras has lost 2 out of his last 3 fights since 2016. Cuadras CANNOT lose this fight against the 32-year-old Arroyo if he wants to stay in the hunt for a title shot against the winner of the Rungvisai vs. Estrada fight. Indeed, Cuadras vs. Arroyo is a WBC 115 lb. title eliminator, so winner of that fight is going to get a fight against the winner of the main event fight. Cuadras is considered the to beat in this match-up, but you never know with him due to his poor stamina.