Roman Gonzalez wants $1 MILLION+ for Juan Estrada rematch

By Boxing News - 07/19/2020 - Comments

By Sean Jones: Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez won’t be facing Juan Francisco Estrada next, unfortunately. The WBA Super World super flyweight champion Gonzalez (49-2, 41 KOs) wants to be paid $1 million+ for the Estrada fight, and he’s not willing to accept less for a match of that magnitude.

Given the kind of money that other world champions typically get, Gonzalez’s request of $1 million sounds reasonable. You would think a fight between Chocolatito and Estrada should be worth a lot more than that for each fighter.

Estrada (40-3, 27 KOs) and Chocolatito, 33, need to fight in front of a live crowd for it to bring in the kind of money to maximize the earning potential for both fighters. It’s wiser for Chocolatito and ‘El Gallo’ Estrada to wait until 2021 after a vaccine has been developed to halt the virus in its tracks.

Boxing fans have been waiting for a rematch between Gonzalez and Estrada since they fought eight years ago in 2012 at 108. Chocolatito outworked Estrada in winning an impressive 12 round unanimous decision.

Fans have been waiting for ages to see Gonzalez-Estrada 2

Perhaps they would have fought a rematch a long time ago, but Chocolatito moved up to 112 and then 115.

Estrada, 30, has looked great recently, beating Dewayne Beamon and Srisaket Sor Rungvisai in his last two fights. Rungvisai beat Estrada by a 12 round decision in their first fight in 2018, but he returned the favor last year.

Chocolatito, a four-division world champion, has begun training in the U.S for his next fight on August 28 or September 12.  He could be fighting in the co-feature spot on Canelo Alvarez’s next match on September 12 on DAZN.

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Gonzalez fighting on Canelo’s undercard would be an excellent opportunity to get a lot of visibility, but there may not be enough money to include him. Canelo is getting paid massive dough for his fights on DAZN, and his promoters at Golden Boy seem to be looking to go cheap in searching for an opponent that will fit their limited budget. Chocolatito might not be a good option for the card.

If Chocolatito picks the August 28th date, he would be fighting on the undercard of Jorge Linares vs. Javier Fortuna on DAZN.

Gonzalez still needs an opponent

Chocolatito doesn’t have an opponent yet for that fight date, but there’s still plenty of time for one to be picked out. Gonzalez would be fighting Andrew Moloney next, but he lost his WBA ‘regular’ 115-lb title to Joshua Franco by a 12 round unanimous decision on June 23. Moloney and Franco are fighting a rematch next, so there’s no possibility of Gonzalez fighting either of them.

“If they think I’m crazy, I can’t do anything about that. I am collecting what I am worth,” said Chocoltito to @LaPrensa.

Image: Roman Gonzalez wants $1 MILLION+ for Juan Estrada rematch

Gonzalez defeated WBA 115-lb champion Kal Yafai by a 9th round TKO on February 29 to dethrone the champion in Frisco, Texas. The performance by Chocoltito was on the same level we’d seen him when he was at his best.

One reason for that is Gonzalez took care of his knee problem, which had caused him issues for the last two years. Conditioning-wise, Gonzalez was in superb shape, and he was too skillful for Yafai, who had never fought anyone with the kind of ability that he possesses.

In the build-up to the fight, one could see that Yafai was going to have a nightmare on his hands as Chocolatito was looking sensational in his workouts. Yafai looked like he had struggled to make the 115lb limit, and he didn’t perform at the level that we’d seen him two years earlier. To beat a fighter like Chocolatito, Yafai needed to be at his best, and he wasn’t anywhere near that.