By Dan Ambrose: WBC flyweight world champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (44-0, 38 KOs) will be starting his training camp this week for his April 23 title defense on HBO pay-per-view against #9 WBC McWilliams Arroyo (16-2, 14 KO’s) at the Forum in Inglewood, California. The main event will have IBF/IBO/WBA middleweight champion Gennady Golovkin defending his title against Dominic Wade.
This card is interesting in that it has the #1 pound-for-pound fighter Gonzalez and the #3 in Golovkin. Gonzalez wants to make sure that he can keep his No.1 spot by putting on a good performance and winning his fight against the 30-year-old Arroyo in style.
This fight won’t do much for Gonzalez because it’s a step down from his last fight in October against Brian Viloria. The guys that are going to give Gonzalez problems are fighters like super flyweight champions Naoya Inoue and Carlos Cuadras.
The 28-year-old Gonzalez is going to need to move up to the 115lb division soon if he wants to get the bigger fights because he’s exhausted pretty much all the best fights in the flyweight division. He already beat Brian Viloria and Juan Francisco Estrada. Gonzalez wants to stay down at flyweight long enough to fight Estrada a second time, but he’s better off moving up in weight because he can get big fights almost immediately at super flyweight and at bantamweight.
The best fights for Gonzalez would be at super bantamweight, but it’s unclear whether he’ll move up that far because it’s 10 pounds above the weight class he’s currently fighting at. 10 pounds isn’t much for fighters in the middleweight division, but for someone that fights at 112 like Gonzalez, it’s a lot of weight.
“I’m ready. My goal is to win that fourth world title and fifth if possible,” Gonzalez said to fightnews.com. “I think hardest and toughest fighter at 115 is Inoue. Cuadras is a good boxer that moves well and throws lots of combinations but he is nothing like Inoue,” Chocolatito said.
Gonzalez would have trouble with the size and punching power of the 5’4” Naoya Inoue. He’s a little taller than the 5’3” Gonzalez, and a lot younger at 22. It would be a dangerous fight for Gonzalez if he would win it, but it would definitely be a huge fight for him.
Arroyo has previously lost to IBF flyweight champion Amnat Ruenroeng in 2014 in losing a close 12 round split decision.
This will be a good showcase fight for Gonzalez to display his talent to the America fans. Arroyo has just enough game to give Gonzalez a little bit of trouble, but not enough to beat him.
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