Estrada vs. Cuadras, Chocolatito vs. Gonzalez & Martinez vs. Calleros – Official DAZN Weights

By Boxing News - 10/22/2020 - Comments

By Dan Ambrose:  Juan Francisco Estrada, Carlos Cuadras, Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez, and Julio Cesar Martinez all successfully weighed in on Thursday for their fights this Friday night on DAZN. The card starts at 7 pm ET.

WBC super flyweight champion Estrada 40-3 27 KOs) came in at 114.5 pounds for his title defense against former WBC champ Cuadras (39-3-1 27 KOs). The 32-year-old Cuadras weighed 114.5 lbs as well. Estrada and Cuadras are the headline attraction on the card.

Cuadras has done quite well in his championship fights with a 6-1-1 record. His only defeats during his career were to Roman Gonzalez in 2016, and to Juan Estrada in a non-title fight.

The speed and the power of Cuadras will make it tough on Estrada, and it’s going to be interesting to see which of the two has their hand raised at the end of the night. Cuadras defeated Srisaket Sor Rungvisai by an eight-round technical decision in 2014.

Carlos arguably did a better job dealing with Rungvisai than Estrada did recently with his narrow 12 round decision victory in April of 2019.

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Three years go, Cuadras came up short in losing a 12 round majority decision to Estrada in September 2017. Cuadras has improved since then and won his last three fights, and he’s going to be looking to avenge his defeat to the always tough Estrada.

Juan Francisco Estrada vs. Carlos Cuadras

Image: Estrada vs. Cuadras, Chocolatito vs. Gonzalez & Martinez vs. Calleros - Official DAZN Weights

Carlos knows what he has to do for him to win the fight. He has to apply a lot of pressure and cut off the ring on ‘El Gallo’ Estrada to force him to fight.

Estrada isn’t going to stand and fight because he doesn’t possess the same type of power that Cuadras does, and he’s not a great combination puncher like him.

Estrada and Chocolatito (49-2, 41 KOs) need to win their respective matches for them to meet for a rematch in 2021. They fought eight years ago in 2012 in Los Angeles, California. Chocolatito was the better man that night in winning a 12 round unanimous decision.

In Cuadras’ last three fights, he’s beaten these fighters:

  • Jose Maria Cardenas
  • Daniel Lozano
  • Ricardo Nunez

Those aren’t exactly household names that Cuadras has been fighting lately, but he did his job in winning those fights. Estrada has had a tougher time recently in twice fighting Rungvisai.

Juan Francisco, 30, lost the first one to the Thai fighter in 2018 by a 12 round majority decision and then beat him by a close 12 round unanimous decision in their rematch in 2019.

Roman Gonzalez vs. Israel Gonzalez

Image: Estrada vs. Cuadras, Chocolatito vs. Gonzalez & Martinez vs. Calleros - Official DAZN Weights

The former four-division world champion Chocolatito weighed in at 114 pounds for the title defense of his WBA super-flyweight belt against challenger Israel Gonzalez (25-3, 11 KOs). The 23-year-old Gonzalez weighed 114-lbs.

Chocolatito and Gonzalez are the co-feature bout on the card, and in the perfect spot to steal the shot from the Estrada vs. Cuadras fight if they fail to live up to the billing.

Roman never fails to give it his all, and he’s going to make the fight with Israel exciting whether he wants it to be to not. Israel is more of a boxer, who will be looking to keep Chocolatito all night. The youngster Gonzalez has defeats against Kal Yafai and Jerwin Ancajas.

Chocolatito is coming off of a badly needed ninth-round knockout win over WBA 115-lb champion Kal Yafai. Before that fight, many boxing fans felt that Chocolatito was washed up and was going to lose to Yafai.

Chocolatito rolled back the hands of time and surprised the fans by stopping the younger fighter Yafai.

The more talented Chocolatito should have little problems beating Israel Gonzalez, but it probably won’t be easy. Israel is an adamant guy, and he’s got the size and the youth advantage over Chocolatito.

Roman is still basically a 108-pounders who fights against bigger guys at 115. It’s not a good fit for Chocolatito competing in the super flyweight division, but it appears he’s going to stick it out until the bitter end.

Chocolatito isn’t going to move back down to 112 or 108, even though it would help his career. However, if he loses to Israel on Friday night, I imagine Chocolatito will think hard on the subject.

If he can’t beat fringe contenders like Israel Gonzalez at 115, it’s a clear sign that Roman needs to go back down to 112 or 108.

Julio Cesar Martinez vs. Moises Calleros 

Image: Estrada vs. Cuadras, Chocolatito vs. Gonzalez & Martinez vs. Calleros - Official DAZN Weights

WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez (16-1, 12 KOs) weighed in at 111 pounds for what was supposed to have been a title defense against replacement opponent Moises Calleros (33-9-1, 17 KOs).

Unfortunately, Calleros came in overweight by 5 pounds, 4 ounces, so he won’t have a chance to capture Martinez’s WBC title. Thankfully, the fight will still go on, but it’s no longer a title defense for Martinez.

Martinez was looking really good for a while there, but he ran into a block of cement in the form of Jay Harris last February, and he was lucky to escape that fight with a win.

The British fighter Harris (18-1, 9 KOs) proved to be a really tough out for Martinez, as he was showing skills that most 115-pounders can only dream of having.

If not for Martinez’s buzzsaw fighting style and his nonstop pressure attacks, he would have lost that fight. Harris was frequently getting the better of Martinez, and a lot of the rounds were close.

In the 10th round, Martinez sealed the victory by knocking down Harris with a hard body shot. What made the fight harder than it should have been was Martinez not fighting with the same aggression that we’d seen from him in his wins over Andrew Selby, Charlie Edwards, and Cristofer Rosales.

Official weigh-in results for Estrada vs. Cuadras

Image: Estrada vs. Cuadras, Chocolatito vs. Gonzalez & Martinez vs. Calleros - Official DAZN Weights

  • Juan Francisco Estrada (114.5 lbs) vs. Carlos Cuadras (114.5 lbs) – main event
  • Roman Gonzalez (114 lbs) vs. Israel Gonzalez (114 lbs) – co-feature bout
  • Julio Cesar Martinez (111 lbs) vs. Moises Calleros (117.4 lbs) – the challenger Calleros weighed in 5.4 lbs over the 112-lb limit. The fight will still be taking place, but Calleros has no shot at winning Martinez’s WBC flyweight belt.
  • Diego Pacheco (167.2 lbs) vs. Juan Antonio Mendez (164.9 lbs)
  • Austin Williams (160 lbs) vs. Esau Herrera (157.6 lbs)
  • Otha Jones III (130 lbs) vs. Kevin Montiel (130 lbs)