By Jim Dower: Srisaket Sor Rungvisai weighed in at 114.8 pounds on Friday afternoon for his title defense of WBC super flyweight belt against challenger Juan Francisco Estrada on Saturday night at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
(Photos credit: Tom Hogan/360 Boxing Promotions)
Estrada (36-2, 25 KOs) weighed in at 115 lbs. HBO Boxing will be televising the SuperFly 2 card this Saturday night. The fight card kicks off at 9:30 p.m. ET/6:30 p.m. PT. It’s a loaded card with a lot of great fights and action. Rungvisai-Estrada could be the best of the bunch unless we see a quick knockout by the Thailand fighter Rungvisai like in his last fight against Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez.
Estrada, 27, looked like the bigger guy than Rungvisai despite this being only his 4th fight at super flyweight. Rungvisai (44-4-1, 40 KOs) is still the more powerful puncher of the two by far. That might be the difference on Saturday night unless Estrada can use his youth, speed and mobility to box his way to a 12 round decision.
Rungvisai will be facing one of the best boxers in the 112 lb. division in Estrada. It’s going to be hard for Rungvisai to get a win in this fight unless he can use his power to beat Estrada into submission. Estrada is nearly impossible to beat by a 12 round decision. That’s his entire came – using his boxing skills to outpoint his opposition.
This will be the 31-year-old Rungvisai’s second defense of his World Boxing Council 115 lb. title he won last year in March in defeating Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez by 12 round majority decision.
Rungvisai knocked Gonzalez out in the 4th round in their rematch last October to leave no questions that the better fighter of the two is. Going into that a fight a lot of boxing fans were thinking that Rungvisai would lose to Gonzalez. The fans thought that Gonzalez was robbed of a 12 round decision win in the first fight with Rungvisai. The knockout win for Rungvisai was a big one.
“I was extremely proud and honored,” Sor Rungvisai said via ESPN.com. “It was an honor for me and my family and I am very happy that I could do my part in building a good reputation for Thailand. I’m really proud that I can be an inspiration for the Thai people, especially the Thai youth, and Thai boxers.”
5 years ago, Rungvisai captured the WBC World super flyweight title for the first time in stopped Yota Sato by an 8th round knockout on May 3, 2013. Rungvisai successfully defended the WBC 115 lb. title once before losing the belt to Carlos Cuadras by an 8th round technical decision on May 3, 2014. The fight was stopped after Cuadras suffered a cut from a clash of heads in the 8th. Cuadras had built up a small lead in the fight and that was enough for him to get a close decision.
Cuadras opted not to give Rungvisai a rematch for some reason. Cuadras instead defended the title 6 times successfully before losing the belt to Roman Gonzalez by a 12 round unanimous decision in September 2016. Rungvisai won’t play the same way with Cuadras if he beats his opponent McWilliams Arroyo this Saturday night. Rungvisai wants to give Cuadras a rematch, and he’s not going to ignore him and look to make easy title defenses the way he saw from Cuadras. Rungvisai wants to fight the best, because he understands that’s what the boxing fans want to see.
“When you can beat the pound-for-pound champion twice, that rocketed Srisaket to the top of the division. He is one of the outstanding champions in the sport of boxing,” Tom Loeffler of K2 Promotions said to ESPN.com.
Carlos Cuadras vs. McWilliams Arroyo
With a slight grin on his face, former WBC super flyweight champion Carlos Cuadras (36-2-1, 27 KOs) weighed in at 114.6 lbs. for his WBC 115 lb. title eliminator fight against former flyweight world title challenger and 2008 Olympian McWilliams Arroyo (16-3, 14 KOs). The 32-year-old Arroyo weighed in at 114.2 lbs. Cuadras, 29, and Arroyo will be fighting for the vacant WBC silver super flyweight title. The bigger prize they’ll be fighting for is to earn the WBC mandatory spot to challenge the winner of Rungvisai vs. Estrada.
Donnie Nietes vs. Juan Carlos Reveco
IBF World flyweight champion Donnie Nietes (40-1-4, 22 KOs) weighed in at 111.6 lbs. for his title defense against #1 IBF Juan Carlos Reveco (39-3, 19 KOs). The 34-year-old former 2 division world champion Reveco weighed in at 112.2 lbs. These are a couple of older guys. The Filipino Nietes is 35-years-old, and has been fighting as a pro for 15 years since 2003. Reveco, who comes from Argentina, has been a pro for the last 14 years since 2014. Reveco has been struggling recently with his career in losing twice to Kazuto Ioka twice. Reveco lost a 12 round majority decision to Ioka in April 2015. In their rematch in December of 2015, Ioka stopped Reveco in the 12th round.
Brian Viloria vs. Artem Dalakian
Former 2 division world champion Brian Viloria (38-5, 23 KOs) weighed in at 111.4 lbs. for his fight against unbeaten Artem Artem Dalakian (15-0, 11 KOs) for the vacant WBA flyweight title. The 30-year-old Dalakian weighed 111.4 lbs. Viloria, 37, is a 2000 U.S Olympian. In fact, he’s the last member of the 2000 U.S Olympic team that is still fighting. All the rest retired already, and Viloria is still going at it and fighting at a high level. Viloria was seen as a finished fighter by a lot of boxing fans after his 12 round split decision loss to Juan Francisco Estrada in April 2013, and his 9th round knockout defeat to Roman Gonzalez in October 2015. Viloria has come back from those defeats to win his last 2 fights to Ruben Montoya and Miguel Cartagena.
Viloria is still able to compete at a high level due to his punching power and his hand speed. Viloria always had a lot of hand speed earlier in his career. As he’s gotten older, he’s slowed down some, but he’s still fast and his power is just as good as ever. With Estrada and Gonzalez no longer fighting at flyweight, it makes it possible for Viloria to compete for a title in the weight class. Viloria has a tough opponent in Dalakian. He has good power and he’s still young at 30. The only thing that Dalakian lacks is experience. He’s not been facing the top level fighters that Viloria has. It’s going to be a big bump up in competition for Dalakian. This would be a huge positive for Viloria’s career to win a world title on Saturday night, as it’s been 5 years since he last held a world title in 2013.
