By Jeff Aronow: Juan Franciso Estrada (40-3, 27 KOs) fights Carlos Cuadras, Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez defends against Israel Gonzalez, and Julio Cesar Martinez battles replacement opponent Moises Calleros this Friday, October 23 on DAZN.
Matchroom Boxing USA promoter Eddie Hearn has assembled a good card with Estrada, Cuadras, Chocolatito, and Martinez, all competing.
Former WBC 115-lb champion Cuadras (39-3, 27 KOs) as tested negative for COVID 19 and he’s now clear to challenge World Boxing Council World Super Fly Title Estrada (40-3, 27 on Friday.
Last week the 32-year-old Cuadras tested positive for the dreaded virus, but he’s now clear and ready to challenge ‘El Gallo’ in a rematch Gimnasio TV Azteca, in Mexico City, Mexico.
Estrada faces Cuadras in rematch
Cuadras and Estrada will be the headliner bout on the card. The two fought three years ago in 2017 with Estrada winning a 12 round unanimous decision by the scores 114-113 x 3.
It was a close fight in the end, but early on, Estrada dominated the sluggish Cuadras. This wasn’t the prime Cuadras that we’d seen beat Srisaket Sor Rungvisai or the one that gave Chocolatito all he could handle in 2016.
Cuadras didn’t look nearly as sharp, but he still had enough talent to make it close at the end with a late surge.
WBA super flyweight champion Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez (49-2 41 KOs) has a tough fight on his hands against the upset-minded Israel Gonzalez (25-3 11 KOs) in the co-feature bout on the card.
Chocolatito’s fight against Gonzalez isn’t as interesting as the Estrada vs. Cuadras fight, but it’s no less important.
The 32-year-old Chocolatito is in a must-win situation with this fight, as he needs a victory to move on and face Estrada in 2021 on DAZN. That, of course, is contingent on Estrada beating Cuadras on Friday night.
Chocolatito with a tough opponent
Israel Gonzalez, 23, has twice challenged for world titles during his six-year pro career in losing to champions Kal Yafai and Jerwin Ancajas. Gonzalez wasn’t quite good enough to beat those champs, and he went down to defeat.
In Gonzalez’s last two fights, he’s beaten Sho Ishida and Jose Luis Zazueta
Chocolatito has a three-fight winning streak going for him after losing twice to Rungvisai in 2017. I
n Chocolatito’s last fight, he stopped WBA 115lb champion Yafai in the ninth round last February in Frisco, Texas. The win for Chocolatito turned his career around and showed the boxing world that he still does have a lot left in the tank.
4 days to go til our huge World title triple header in Mexico live on @DAZN_USA @MatchroomBoxing 🔥 pic.twitter.com/YNxCamWhXT
— Eddie Hearn (@EddieHearn) October 19, 2020
Julio Cesar Martinez vs. Moises Calleros
The talented WBA flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez (16-1, 12 KOs) got some terrible news today with his originally scheduled opponent IBO champion Maximino Flores tested positive for COVID 19, and had to be replaced by Moises Calleros (33-9-1 17 KOs).
It’s a step down for Martinez from his recent fights against the following quality opponents:
- Jay Harris
- Cristofer Rosales
- Charlie Edwards
- Andrew Selby
There’s not much Martinez, 25, can do right now, as it’s a bad time for him and his promoters to be setting up important fights for him. He just needs to take care of Calleros and move into the new with a clean slate.
Matchroom Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn wants to set Martinez up in some unification matches against the other champions at 112. It’s good that Martinez is willing to take on the other champions without being pressured. That makes things easy.
Calleros, 31, fought for a world title a couple of years ago against former WBO minimumweight champion Ryuya Yamanaka in 2018. He lost that fight and the one after that to Jose Argumedo. However, he’s won his last four contests and he’s looked sharp.
Whether Calleros hs the talent to enable him to stay in there for the full 12 rounds against Julio Cesar Martinez is the real question.