By Dan Ambrose: Undefeated WBC flyweight champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (45-0, 38 KOs) is in negotiations with unbeaten WBC super flyweight champion Carlos Cuadras (35-0-1, 27 KOs) for a fight on HBO Championship Boxing on September 10 in Los Angeles, California, according to Ring TV.
Gonzalez, 29, will be moving up in weight from flyweight (112lbs) to challenge for the 27-year-old Cuadras’ WBC 115lb title. The negotiations are still underway.
This is one of those 50-50 fights that are hard to predict. Cuadras has a lot of talent and punching power. It’s same with Gonzalez. Both fighters are 5’4”.
If the Gonzale-Cuadras fight does get made, they’ll be headlining the card. Gonzalez has fought his last three times on the undercards of IBF/IBO/WBA/WBC middleweight champion Gennady “GGG” Golovkin. This will be interesting to see if Gonzalez can bring in the huge ratings without GGG on the card to drive interest from the boxing fans.
One positive for Gonzalez in fighting on Golovkin’s undercards is that a lot of boxing fans in the U.S have gotten to know him and now they’re hooked as fans. By him headlining a fight with Cuadras, this well be a good test to see how popular Gonzalez is. It’s not likely that the casual boxing fans in the U.S will have heard of Cuadras before. It’ll be up to Gonzalez to attract the interest from the American fans.
Gonzalez has already captured world titles in three different divisions during his career. Gonzalez, who comes from Nicaragua, has previously won world titles at Minimumweight, light flyweight and flyweight.
If Gonzalez were to stay at flyweight, there are still several interesting match-ups for him in this weight class against Johnriel Casimero, a rematch against Juan Francisco Estrada, and Kazuto Ioka. However, at super flyweight, Gonzalez can fight Cuadras, Kohei Kono, McJoe Arroyo and Naoya Inoue. If Gonzalez could fight all four of those champions, he could potentially emerge as a huge star if he beats them all.
Those would be really excellent fights. It’ll be up to Gonzalez to decide whether he wants to stay in this weight class or move up to bantamweight to take on the next level fighters. They’re a lot bigger in the 118lb division, and it would be a risky venture on Gonzalez’s part if he does that.
Cuadras captured the WBC super flyweight title in May 2014 in beating Wisaksil Wangek by a 8th round technical decision. Cuadras has defended his WBC title six times. He recently stopped Richie Richie Mepranum earlier this year. Mepranum opted to retire on his stool after the 8th.