The SuperFly Dream

By Danni Rocket - 02/25/2018 - Comments

Image: The SuperFly Dream

By Danni Rocket: The Super Flyweight and Flyweight divisions have been providing the boxing fans with incredible battles of both skill and heart for many years. Unfortunately, these fine displays of pugilism have been mostly only viewed by the hardened members of the boxing fraternity. Now however, this has all changed. In the last couple of years HBO has invested large amounts of airtime and money into the lower weight classes, and has gifted us with the SuperFly Series of boxing nights, bringing these incredible warriors into the mainstream.

In September last year the first card, SuperFly, had six of the Super Flyweight divisions best competing against each other. Naoya Inoue faced Antonio Nieves, and successfully defended his WBO title. Juan Francisco Estrada knocked down and barely outpointed Carlos Cuadras in an all Mexican war and WBC final eliminator. And Srisaket Sor Rungvisai once again defeated former pound for pound king Roman Gonzalez by a vicious knockout of the year candidate.

And on Saturday we were once again treated to a phenomenal night of action in the form of SuperFly 2. This card provided great action, huge upsets, and the introduction to a lot of casual fans to Donnie Nietes (although he was fighting at flyweight, he has expressed his desire to move up to 115lbs to win a fourth division world title). He opened the show and did as was expected in defeating the former WBA Flyweight world champion Juan Carlos Reveco. Then the upset. McWilliams Arroyo out boxed former WBC Champion, and the last person to defeat Sor Rungvisai, Carlos Cuadras over ten rounds. Not bad considering the last time he was in the ring was April 2016 where he received a 12 round pasting from Roman Gonzalez. Then the headline, Sor Rungvisai vs Estrada. A fight of two halves, most people I know scored it a draw, or one round either way. I personally had it even, with Sor Rungvisai winning the majority of the first half, and Estrada rallying to take the bulk of the second. The official decision was a Majority Decision win for Rungvisai.

The boxing world has already embraced the idea of a third instalment of the SuperFly Series, and hopefully this can be arranged for some time in fall. That would give time for Roman Gonzalez to have his comeback bout in April, and for Cuadras to win an interim fight to regain his confidence and work his way back up the rankings. This is my personal list of fights I’d realistically like to see. It should be noted that Naoya Inoue has already stated his plans to move up to Bantamweight for his next contest, and for the sake of this article, his WBO Title is now vacant.

Main Card

Srisaket Sor Rungvisai vs Juan Francisco Estrada 2 (WBC and Vacant Ring Magazine Fly Weight Titles) – This rematch must happen, and as Naoya Inoue would have moved up to Bantamweight by this point it would pit the number one and number two in the division against each other for the vacant Ring Magazine and Linear Titles, as well as Sor Rungvisai’s WBC strap. In an ideal world, the winner of this bout would face the winner of the Jerwin Ancajas vs Arroyo fight, and the loser would face the winner of the Yafai vs Gonzalez fight on the next SuperFly card in early 2019.

Jerwin Ancajas vs McWilliams Arroyo (IBF Super Flyweight Title) – In my opinion, Arroyo deserves an immediate title fight with the way he easily out boxed the talented Cuadras, and although the WBC sanctioned Saturdays bout as an eliminator, I’d rather see this fight for two reasons. Firstly, there is history. Jerwin Ancajas won his IBF belt from McWilliams brother, McJoe Arroyo, and this would be a chance to avenge his brothers Unanimous Decision defeat to Ancajas. And secondly, if Arroyo would win the title, which I would expect him to if he boxed as he did this weekend, it would set up a winter unification fight with the winner of Sor Rungvisai and Estrada. A potential difficulty in setting up this fight is that McWilliams Arroyo is not currently ranked by the IBF, due to him having nearly two years off. One hopes the IBF would install him in a high ranking position based on this weekend’s performance.

Khalid Yafai vs Roman Gonzalez (WBA Super Flyweight Title) – This was discussed last year as a potential fight for the SuperFly 2, however Gonzalez said he wanted a later and easier comeback fight. Chocolatito is currently ranked number one with the WBA, so providing he wins his comeback fight, this shouldn’t be difficult to arrange. It would by no means a walk over for Gonzalez however. Yafai is an excellent fighter who is yet to be exposed to the American fight fans, and I believe his boxing ability would provide a stern test for Chocolatito, and would, if nothing else, show us what Gonzalez has left in the tank. He would also bring with him the appeal of the UK fight fans, providing the event with a heftier pot with which to plan the event. As stated I’d like to see the loser of the Main Event take on the victor of this fight.

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Donnie Nietes vs Rex Tso (Vacant WBO Super Flyweight Title) – Donnie Nietes did what he had to on Saturday night and stopped a good fighter in Reveco, and he has recently come out saying he wants either Chocolatito or Sor Rungvisai next. I think this fight would be a good test to see how suited he is in this new weight class, as well as giving him the opportunity to add his much craved fourth division world title. Nietes is yet to campaign at Super Flyweight, and as such is not currently ranked by any of the organizations, although the WBO has been known to offer title fights to exceptional contenders moving up in their first fight. Nietes held the WBO title across two weight classes for nearly a decade between 2007 and 2016, and I believe, given their relationship and history, they would grant him the chance to fight their number one ranked fight, Rex Tso, for the vacant belt. The winner could then take on the winner of…

Carlos Cuadras vs Aston Palicte (WBO Final Eliminator) – Cuadras is currently ranked at number six by the WBO, as the rankings are yet to be updated since his loss, but I feel that if he was to win an interim fight in May or June, he could position himself for this eliminator against the WBO ranked number two, Aston Palicte. Should Cuadras emerge victorious as expected, it would provide him with a good win in fully view of the boxing world and would hopefully bring him back from out the shadows which his recent defeats have placed him, and the opportunity to fight for the WBO belt next.

HBO has apparently already expressed a keen interest to make SuperFly 3 a reality, and I hope that we see some or all these fights happen on that card in order to set up a SuperFly 4 card in early 2019 filled with unifications.

What does the reader think? Are there any other fights that you would like to see? And how did you score the Sor Rungvisai vs Estrada fight last night? I look forward to reading your comments.