By Chris Williams: Newly crowned IBF World flyweight champion Johnriel Casimero (22-3, 14 KOs) is interested in facing unbeaten WBC flyweight champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (45-0, 38 KOs) in a unification fight.
Casimero, 26, is coming off an impressive fourth round knockout win over IBF flyweight champion Amnat Ruenroeng last month on May 25 in their rematch in Beijing, China. Casimero was beaten last year by Ruenroeng in losing a 12 round unanimous decision in Bangkok, Thailand.
Casimero seems like a good fighter, but he doesn’t appear to be on the same level as Gonzalez or even close to being on the same level. It would be better for Gonzalez to put Casimero on ignore and focus on the last task at hand at flyweight by beating Juan Francisco Estrada in a rematch, and then move up to super flyweight so he can take on better fighters like WBO 115lb champion Naoya Inoue, IBF champ McJoe Arroyo, Kohei Kono and WBC champion Carlos Cuadras.
If Gonzalez answers every paper champions challenge, he’ll spend the remainder of his career at flyweight without moving up in weight to take on the more interesting champions and challengers at 115 and 118.
“Next, we want to unify against Chocolatito,” said Sampson Lewkowicz, Casimero’s promoter to ESPN.com. “Tell him we are ready any time. They say no one wants to fight Gonzalez. We do! Johnriel is right here and ready to unify the championships. My phone is always on. Let’s make it happen.”
Casimero still has losses he needs to avenge against Moruti Mthalane and Ramon Garcia Hirales before he can think about fighting Gonzalez. Instead of looking to fight Gonzalez, Casimero should fight the guys that beat him rather than looking at guys that he doesn’t rate a fight against right now.
It’s up to Gonzalez if he wants to take on Casimero, but it seems to me the fight isn’t worth it right now for him. Casimero has losses to avenge, and Gonzalez has bigger fish to fry than trapping his career at flyweight fighting guys that have been beaten many times already.