By Dan Ambrose: WBC World flyweight champion Roman Gonzalez (43-0, 37 KOs) looked sensational last Saturday night in stopping Edgar Sosa (51-9, 30 KOs) by a 2nd round knockout at the Forum in Inglewood, California.
Gonzalez put the 35-year-old Sosa on the canvas three separate times in the 2nd round before referee Raul Caiz Sr. put a stop to the mismatch at 2:37 of the round.
HBO is really high on Gonzalez and want to continue to televise his fights. However, they’re going to need to push Gonzalez’s people to face better opponents than the 35-year-old Sosa because that fight wasn’t really entertaining due to how over-matched Sosa was.
Gonzalez, 27, says he wants to face WBA/WBO flyweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada (32-2, 23 KOs) in a rematch. The two fighters fought in 2012 with Gonzalez winning by a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores of 116-112, 116-112 and 118-110. Gonzalez wants to face Estrada a second time so that he can improve on the job he did the first time he beat him. He wants to beat Estrada by a more one-sided fight. However, I’m not sure that Estrada is going to go for a second fight against Gonzalez after losing to Gonzalez three years ago.
“I want to fight [unified flyweight titleholder] Juan Estrada next,” Gonzalez said to ESPN.com. “I want to fight him as soon as possible, and hopefully on HBO and in the United States.”
HBO would likely be interested in televising the Gonzalez-Estrada rematch. It would be even better if Gonzalez were to move up to bantamweight and take on some of the top fighters in that division rather than facing Estrada again.
Gonzalez needs better opposition if he wants to become a big star. Beating up on guys like Sosa isn’t going to do much for him. Gonzalez needs competitive fights. Gonzalez needs to make a move up to super flyweight to take on WBO champion Naoya Inoue. That would be a much better fight than Gonzalez fighting Estrada again in a needless rematch. There’s no point in Gonzalez fighting Estrada over and over again when he can get better opponents by moving up in weight.
Gonzalez has won three division world titles during his pro career. If he keeps moving up in weight you can expect him to continue to win world titles. Gonzalez might be good enough to rise as high as bantamweight while still winning world titles, but I think that’s probably as far as he can go. If he moves to featherweight, he could have problems.
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