By Mark Eisner: In a thrilling fight from start to finish, WBC super flyweight champion Juan Francisco Estrada (41-3, 28 KOs) had to dig deep to defeat former WBC champ Carlos Cuadras (39-4-1, 27 KOs) by an 11th round knockout on Friday night at the TV Azteca Studios in Mexico City, Mexico.

Estrada, 30, got up off the deck in a third-round knockdown to come back and drop the 32-year-old Cuadras twice in the 11th round.

The fight was stopped after Cuadras got back and was met with a barrage of punches. The official time of the stoppage was at 2:22 of round 11.

Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez defeats Israel Gonzalez

Showing a little bit of age, WBA super flyweight champion Roman “Chocolatito” Gonzalez (50-2, 41 KOs) battled hard to defeat the younger fighter Israel Gonzalez (25-4, 11 KOs) by a 12 round unanimous decision.

After a slow start, the 33-year-old Chocolatito turned it up the heat on his offense and took command of the fight against Israel, who struggled with the fast pace that he was forced to endure.

By the seventh, Israel looked exhausted from the combination of the body shots and the nonstop pressure from Chocolatito.

In the 11th and 12th, Israel got his second wind and made it competitive at the end. He finished strong but he didn’t do enough to get the win over Chocolatito.

The judges scored it 118-110, 116-112, and 117-111. Boxing News 24 had it for Chocolatito by a 116-112 score. The victory gives Roman his 50th career win

Chocolatito looked a little thick around the waistline, and it’s unclear whether he worked as hard as he needed to. This wasn’t the type of impressive performance that we’d seen from Chocolatito in his previous fight against WBA super flyweight champion Kal Yafai last February.

Julio Cesar Martinez stops Moises Calleros

In an impressive display of raw punching power, WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez (17-1, 13 KOs) defeated Moises Calleros (33-10-1, 17 KOs) by a second-round TKO in a non-title fight.

Martinez hurt the 31-year-old Calleros with a left hook in the second round. He then teed off on Calleros with massive shots to the head and body at close range, resulting in the referee stopping the fight. The bout was stopped at 2:42 of round two.

With the victory, Julio Cesar Martinez, 25, could be taking on WBA flyweight champion Artem Dalakian or IBF champion Moruti Mthalane next. Martinez has already let his promoters at Matchroom Boxing know that he’s ready and willing to face the other champions at 112 in a unification fight.

He wants to unify the flyweight division before moving up to 115 to take on the champions in that weight class.

Early results for Estrada vs. Cuadras 2

Diego Pacheco vs. Juan Antonio Mendez – draw 6: The scores 58-56 Jones, 57-57, and 58-56 Mendoza
Undefeated middleweight prospect Austin “Ammo” Williams (6-0, 5 KOs) stopped journeyman Esau Herrera (19-12-1, 8 KOs) in the fifth round. The time of the stoppage was at 1:36.
Super middleweight prospect Diego Pacheco (10-0, 8 KOs) defeated an overmatched Juan Antonio Mendez (12-3-2, 8 KOs) by a second-round knockout. Pacheko flattened Mendez in the second round with a textbook uppercut. The match was called off at 2:02 of round two.

WBC 115-pound champion Estrada (40-3 27 KOs) takes on Carlos Cuadras (39-3-1 27 KOs) in a rematch of their battle in 2017. The Estrada vs. Cuadras match was every bit as exciting as the Chocolatito-Estrada battle.

Estrada with a tough opponent

In tonight’s action on DAZN, super flyweight champions Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez and Juan Franciso Estrada will be defending their titles as they look to pave the way for a rematch in early next year.

Gonzalez and Estrada fought many years ago in 2012 in an exciting, action-packed fight. Now with both fighters holding titles at 115, they’re ready to meet in a unification match next year on DAZN.

It’s risky for Estrada to be taking on Cuadras with the much bigger fight with Chocolatito just over the horizon, but he doesn’t mind. Estrada is willing to take risks with his career, and he’s not going to take the easy way by fighting soft opposition as some champions do.

Roman ‘Chocolatito,’ Gonzalez (49-2, 41 KOs), a former four-division world champ, is fighting in the co-feature in defending his WBA super flyweight title against two-time world title challenger Israel Gonzalez (25-3 11 KOs).

In another great fight on the card, WBC flyweight champion Julio Cesar Martinez (16-1 12 KOs) faces Moises Calleros (33-9-1 17 KOs). Calleros looked huge as a house in weighing in at 117.4 lbs at Thursday’s weigh-in. That was 5.4 lbs over the 112lb limit.

Martinez, 25, decided to stick it out and still take the fight even though he’s facing a bantamweight now instead of a flyweight. Calleros weighed in two divisions above Martinez’s 112-lb weight class.

Some boxing fans are grumbling about why Chocolatito and Estrada aren’t fighting each other tonight. The likely reason why they’re not fighting is that Matchroom Boxing wants to build interest from the casual fans by letting them see Estrada and Chocolatito on the same card.

The ultra-hardcore fans are familiar with Roman Gonzalez and Juan Estrada, but not the casuals. Many of them have never seen those two fights before. As such, it’s a brilliant move on Matchroom’s part to have them both fighting on the same card before putting them in with each other in 2021.

Other fights on tonight’s card:

Diego Pacheco vs Juan Antonio Mendez
Austin Williams vs. Esau Herrera
Otha Jones III vs. Kevin Montiel Mendoza