Estrada vs. Cuadras, Chocolatito vs Gonzalez & Martinez vs. Flores on Oct.23

By Boxing News - 09/16/2020 - Comments

By Sean Jones: Juan Francisco Estrada faces Carlos Cuadras in the main event, and Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez defends against Israel Gonzalez in the co-feature in this stacked tripleheader card on October 23. This event packs a punch with three excellent fight with world champions on DAZN.

On the undercard is Julio Cesar Martinez defending his WBC flyweight belt against Maximino Flores in the opening fight on the card.

@BarbosaBox gets the credit for reporting the news of this superb Matchroom Boxing card.

Chocolatito (49-2, 41 KOs) and Juan Francisco Estrada (40-3, 27 KOs) will be meeting up in early 2021 in February or March as long as they win on October 23, according to Mike Coppinger.

The two super flyweight world champions Chocolatito and ‘El Gallo’ Estrada will finally be facing each other for a rematch from their December 2012 fight, which saw Roman outwork Estrada with high volume punching to win a 12 round unanimous decision.

Image: Estrada vs. Cuadras, Chocolatito vs Gonzalez & Martinez vs. Flores on Oct.23

Juan Francisco Estrada vs. Carlos Cuadras

In the main event, WBC super flyweight champion Juan Estrada is fighting former WBC 115-pound champion Carlos Cuadras (39-3, 27 KOs) in a rematch of their close fight from 2017.

Estrada caught Cuadras at a low point in his career three years ago. He took advantage of the situation by pounding out a narrow 12 round unanimous decision by 114-113, 114-113, and 14-113.

Cuadras, 32, started slowly in that fight, but he came on strong later with his aggressive pressure and powerful combinations to make it close. With his superior punching power, Cuadras got the better of Estrada down the stretch, but it wasn’t enough. Unfortunately, Carlos had given up too many early rounds in the fight for him to pull it out without a knockdown or two.

YouTube video

Although the plans are for Chocolatito and Estrada to meet up in early 2021 in a rematch, Cuadras could be the spoiler for that event. He’s looked great in his last three fights since losing to Estrada, and he’s got a lot of momentum going into the October 23 rematch.

The judges will likely have a tough time scoring the Estrada vs. Cuadras fight, as they’ll need to decide whether to focus on Juan’s lighter shots over Carlo’s variety.

In their previous fight, the judges seemed to ignore all the powerful body shots that Cuadras was landing, and they were focusing more on headshots only.

If you guy by the body punches that Cuadras was hitting Estrada with throughout the contest, he should have arguably won that fight. Cuadras worked over Estrada’s body in that fight.

Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez vs. Israel Gonzalez 

Chocolatito, 33, has a tough fight on his hands in making his first defense of his WBA super flyweight title against #4 WBA Israel Gonzalez (25-2, 11 KOs). In some ways, this may prove to be a more challenging fight for Chocolatito than Estrada’s match against Cuadras in the main event.Image: Estrada vs. Cuadras, Chocolatito vs Gonzalez & Martinez vs. Flores on Oct.23

The 23-year-old Gonzalez has losses to Argi Cortes, Kal Yafai, and Jerwin Ancajas. But Israel has improved a lot since his 10th round stoppage loss to Ancajas in 2018, and he’s arguably unbeaten since then.

Although Israel lost to Yafai by a 12 round decision in November 2018, the defeat was a controversial one with many boxing fans feeling he’d been robbed.

After that loss to Yafai, which you can argue should have been a win for Israel, he’s bounced back with victories over Jose Luis Zazueta and Sho Ishida, and looked great.

Chocolatito recently resurrected his sagging career with a ninth-round knockout win over previously unbeaten WBA super flyweight champion Khalid Yafai on February 29 in Frisco, Texas.

Roman showed his old form in that fight, attacking a supposedly weight-drained Yafai with combinations, and wearing him down slowly.

In the 9th round, Chocolatito dropped Yafai to get the knockout. He’d also dropped Yafai in the 8th round.

If Roman looks the same way he did against Yafai, it will be a long night for Israel to try to deal with him. That version of Chocolatito Gonzalez will be a handful for any fighter, especially the 23-year-old Israel Gonzalez, who has never faced anyone with those skills.

Julio Cesar Martinez vs. Maximino Flores

Making a voluntary defense of his WBC 112-lb title, Julio Cesar Martinez (16-1, 12 KOs) will be facing second-tier fighter Maximino Flores (25-4-2, 17 KOs) in the first fight on the card.

While this isn’t the most incredible fight, it’s a decent one for the 25-year-old Martinez, who is coming off a 12 round war against Jay Harris last February.

Image: Estrada vs. Cuadras, Chocolatito vs Gonzalez & Martinez vs. Flores on Oct.23

Boxing fans would like to see Martinez and Harris do it again, but it’s not all that shocking that Julio’s management is opting for an easier this fight around. Martinez has been in two consecutive wars against Christofer Rosales and Harris, so it was about time for him to be given a gimme to rest up.

Harris proved to be the tougher fight of Martinez’s five-year professional career, as he ran into a fighter with exceptional technical boxing skills in 30-year-old Britsh talent.

In the end, the Eddy Reynoso-trained Martinez used his power and aggressive attack-oriented offense to turn back the threat of Harris in the championship rounds 9 through 12. The scores were 116-111, 115-112, and 118-109.

Martinez’s opponent for October 23, Flores, 29, has won two out of his last four fights since 2019. Flores lost a 12 round unanimous decision to former Martinez knockout victim Andrew Selby in October 2017.

In March of 2019, Flores fought to an eight-round draw against Dewayne Beamon. This is the same Beamon that Juan Estrada knocked out in the 8th round last year in August.

YouTube video

Martinez has won over a lot of Britsh and American boxing fans with his thrilling wins over these fighters:

  • Andrew Selby
  • Charlie Edwards
  • Cristofer Rosales
  • Jay Harris

If Martinez had a better opponent for the October 23 card, he would threaten Chocolatito and Estrada in stealing the show. Unfortunately, Flores is too low-level of a guy for Martinez to get a lot of credit for smashing him.