By Sean Jones: In a controversial decision, Juan Francisco Estrada (42-3, 28 KOs) defeated Roman ‘Chocolatito’ Gonzalez (50-3, 41 KOs) by a 12 round split decision on Saturday night in their long-awaited second clash in a super flyweight unification bout at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, TX.
The crowd at ringside booed results when the scores were revealed with Estrada, 30, getting the split decision victory.
Chocolatito took the fight to Estrada in the second half f the contest, and did the better work, and landed the cleaner shots. In the 12th round, Roman had Estrada looking hurt after hitting him repeatedly with right hands to the head.
The scores were:
- 115-113 – Chocolatito
- 117-111 – Estrada
- 115-113 – Estrada
The judge that scored the fight 117-111 for Estrada saw the contest as a one-sided affair with him winning 9 rounds to 3. This writer doesn’t agree with that kind of score.
I had Chocolatito winning 8 rounds to 4. He was putting his shots together a lot better than Estrada, and he looked like the far more technical of the two.
Chocolatito’s comments:
“Whatever happened had to happen, but I gave it a good fight. I would have been happy either way. I did my work,” said Chocolatito. “It was a better fight than the first one. I felt strong and I felt I won.
“In the last round, I gave it my all and it was a great round. I want most of them. Whatever he wants, we’ll do it. I’m very happy with my performance. I enjoyed the fight.
Estrada’s comments:
“I think I did enough to win,” said Estrada. “I think Chocolatito is a great fighter. Chocolatito deserves a trilogy. I know it was a close fight, I didn’t know if I was up or down, but I knew I had to close out the fight.
“If he threw two or three punches, I had to throw two or three punches as well. The first time I felt a little weak because of the weight, but this time I’m on weight and I felt better. Rungvisai is the mandatory, so I’ll look at that. but I’ll approach a third fight with Chocolatito any day,” said Estrada.
Some boxing fans on social media believe Estrada was given the win because he’s capable of bringing in a lot of fans the way that Canelo Alvarez.
They feel that Estrada was only given the win due to economics. Who knows? It’s hard to say what was going through the minds of the two judges that gave it to Estrada, but it’s troubling that one of them had it so wide.
How do you watch the Estrada-Gonzalez fight and come up with a 117-111 score? That was bizarre.
