By Dan Ambrose: Former 4 division world champion Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez (46-2, 38 KOs) is contemplating a fight in April, according to ESPN. The fight could be in the U.S or in Japan for the 30-year-old Gonzalez, who is coming off of 2 straight losses to Srisaket Sor Rungvisai.
Gonzalez had a terrible 2017. It was easily the worst year of the Nicaraguan Gonzalez’s 12-year pro career. Gonzalez was stopped in the 4th round in his last fight against Rungvisai on September 9 at SuperFly at the StubHub Center in Carson, California.
The good news about Gonzalez’s loss to Rungvisai in the rematch was the loss was quick and less of a beat down compared to his first defeat at the hands of the fighter from Thailand earlier this year in March. Gonzalez took a bad beating in that fight in losing a 12 round majority decision. Some boxing fans feel that Gonzalez deserved the win in that fight. The judges saw Rungvisai landing the harder shots, knocking Gonzalez down in round 1, and causing a lot of facial damage. All of that combined likely factored into the judges’ decision to give the win to Rungvisai.
There are a lot of people in boxing who think it’s time for Gonzalez to think about retiring from the sport. I don’t agree with that. I think he’s been slow in realizing that he doesn’t have the punching power or the size to fight at a high level at super flyweight. Gonzalez started his career out at minimumweight [108] in 2005, and he’s a much better fighter in that weight class as well as at 112. 115 is a step too far for Gonzalez.
Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions recently said that there’s the possibility of Chocolatito fighting on the undercard of the Saul Canelo Alvarez vs. Gennady ‘GGG’ Golovkin rematch on May 5. That would be a fight televised on HBO PPV. Gonzalez would likely be fighting in the co-feature bout on the card, which could be a good of a bad thing depending on who his opponent is.
Gonzalez has been in 3 consecutive hard fights against Carlos Cuadras and Srisaket Rungvisai. At this point, it would be smart for Gonzalez to get a confidence booster under his best in the form of an easy to hit fighter with average power.
If Gonzalez can cut a little weight, he would do himself a world of good if he moved back down to the 112 lb. division. It seems pretty clear at this point that the former pound-for-pound No.1 fighter in boxing Gonzalez is NOT cut out for the super flyweight division.
Gonzalez has 3 times in that weight class since moving up from the flyweight division in September of last year, and he’s taken terrible punishment in each of those fights. When you compare how good Gonzalez looked fighting at flyweight to the way he’s fighting now that he’s at super flyweight, it’s just no real comparison. Gonzalez doesn’t possess the natural size or the power to effortlessly beat his opponents in the 115 lb. division the way he was doing